Out and About

. . . and you were afraid that without the Internet we'd never write! Mama and Baby took a couple of trips this past week up to Port Huron and to the Detroit Zoo (see "Our Recent Pictures" above for pics). Landon has been getting friendly with the other kids in the branch his age, and he is taking in this big wide world around him. He's about two steps away from walking, and he has added to his "ma ma ma" and "pa pa pa" a new "ba ba ba." He has recently really began to become a lot more self-aware, and he lets you know what he wants more and more clearly (which begs the question: Is he getting better at communicating, or are we finally listening correctly to what he's been trying to tell us all along?). He's become more expressive, and yesterday as Mike was getting ready to take him on a bike ride, he reached up and made his "I want" noises as if to say, "Take me, too!" (which Mike did do). As the boys were riding along, Hallie (who had been out on an errand), came up behind them and about crashed, she was laughing so hard! So cute! Mike sets Landon on his shoulders like a trapeze artist and Landon grabs onto his hair or helmet while Mike tries to ride fast enough to shake him loose. . . just makeing sure you were paying attention. The boy rides in one of those front-facing kangaroo pouch baby carriers while Papi pedals (frankly, it's probably not a lot safer than the first scene I described, but at least he won't go flying off when we crash). We're enjoying the sunny mild late summer/early fall weather and taking advantage of getting out and about as much as we can.

We've been to the library every day except Sunday (it helps that the library is just down the block) and are limping along w/o the technology at our beck and call. Obviously it has taken some getting used to, and if we lived any further from the library, it could get really impractical really quick, but there are some positive changes that have taken place at home. Hallie asked Mike when he thought we might be ready to reintroduce the technology, to which he replied, "I don't know. I guess when we can use it as we would any other appliance." For many people, these media act similarly to a microwave or washing machine: they're there when you need them, and they are used occasionally. We were not at that point. Not to paint the picture that we were junkies, but the TV and Internet were well-used throughout the day for work and play to the occasional (frequent?) exclusion of other worthwhile and necessary activities. Part of this comes from us having the luxury of being able to spend much of our time working from home. People who spend their days in work that has them using technology in a limited/specific way, who leave for work early and return home late after commuting, or who don't just feel drawn--by change of habit or by natural inclination--to TV and the Internet (Mike is striving to become a member of that third group, frankly) may view this voluntary fast with bemusement or possible pity. We're not sure how to view it. What we do know is that unlike many people, our family has been given the unusual gift of unstructured time, and our challenge has been to learn how to structure that time meaningfully. For the last little while we have been distracted, and maybe if we can get refocused, we can try using these technological gifts again within the convenient spaces of our home.