Too Much Fun

Watch out for your toes . . . She was pretty proud of this. :)

Uh, we had a pizza party while Mom and Dad went out for their anniversery. :) The pineapple stuff is Jessica's. Sick. The mound of pepperoni is Chandler's. Double sick. And that section of luscious veggies (avocado, sliced tomatoes, green peppers, pineapple, minced garlic) is mine. Mmm mmm good. I took this picture because I thought it was funny, and because I'm documenting EVERYTHING fun so Dave doesn't miss anything while he's in Dallas. If Dave were with us, we'd have made him a section with AAAALLL the toppings, plus some sausage and ham. Am I making everyone hungry? Cuz I'm sure making myself hungry . . .

Audrey was livin it up watching Cinderella on the "big screen" in the TV room. If you can see, she's got her fingers shoved up her nose . . .

This picture probably deserves a post all of its own. I couldn't find Audrey for about 15 minutes. I was getting frantic, calling her name, looking outside, EVERYWHERE . . . well, not everywhere. I noticed her sitting quietly with her hands over her face in the dryer, hiding from me. She thought she was pretty funny. And she was. :)

Outside enjoying more bubbles before bedtime.

Janey Update

Jane has been growing like a weed. She's so so cute. And she luuuves her Baby Bjorn. As do I, as I've mentioned before. :) As you can see, Janie is a full-blown smiler. And I think she's hitting another growth spurt because she's eating constantly again. I suppose that's alright since there are plenty of people around to keep Audrey occupied (we've pretty much taken over the house).

Mission Accomplished: Bye Bye Binky

We knew Audrey would no longer have a binky in her mouth after we stepped out of the car at my parents' house. So far we've held true to that. Audrey has been binky-free, night and day, for almost 5 days now. It seems to be going well. She's suddenly started using words with much more skill. She's also gotten a lot whinier . . . which could be because she's got a runny nose, she's in a new place, Daddy's gone to Dallas already, or she's missing her precious binky. It's hard to say. But I do know she's only ask for it a couple of times only briefly. It looks like we're making good progress.

Fun with Gramy and Grampy

Grampy bought her a little bubble machine. She just loves bubbles. The wind was crazy that day, and her little Gazillion bubbles thing made crazy amounts of bubbles. :)

While she was exploring the bubble machine on the back deck, Uncle Chandler and Aunt Jessica set the sandbox up on the front porch. Naturally, we combined the fun by bringing the bubbles to the front porch so she could have them around while she played in the dirt. She was pretty much in heaven.

This is her helping Grampy in the "office." Mom had to set this little space aside for the Vanilla Grill business paperwork because it was just too crowded to keep Willow Fork Pallet stuff and the Grill stuff together. Dad and Audrey like to have their own little nook. Audrey draws on scratch paper and sings itsy bitsy spider, while Grampy plays with the calculator and talks on his cell phone. :) They make a great team.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to two of my favorite moms. My mom is so wonderful. My dad told me today about the first time my mom and he went on a date after I was born. He said they went out to a movie and didn't make it through the whole thing before she wanted to come back and be with me. :) I'm definately my mother's daughter--I have a very hard time leaving my babies too. Anyway, I thought that was cute. She's so fun to talk to and we can talk for hours on the phone. She's so sweet and thoughful. And she works very hard. It's been fun to be here with her for mother's day. I love my mom. :)

I'm also very fortunate to have a great mother-in-law. She's raised some great kids, and I'm thankful for her hand in raising Dave to be such a wonderful and respectful husband. And being a nurse for a long time and raising 10 kids, she's another great resource for all the questions I have about the baby girls.

I love you both! Happy Mother's Day!!

We made it!

Well, we made it safe and sound to my parents' house in Missouri. The weather was pretty good (nice and cloudy) with only a little bit of rain here and there. We apparently barely missed some tornadoes outside of Dayton, Ohio, but that really shocked us because the rain we saw around there was weak. Anyway, we drove 8 1/2 hours on Thursday, arriving at our hotel in Springfield, Ohio pretty late. The beds were SO comfy which was nice, but our oldest child was extremely wiggly, and neither of us go a whole lot of sleep. Friday's driving went by fast to me. We pulled in at about 7:00, just in time for some of Mom's homemade lasagna. While Dave and I ate, Mom cuddled and cooed over baby Jane, and my Dad showed Audrey aaaaaaall the new toys he bought her in anticipation for the visit. He was probably more excited than she was.

So, we decided in the car on the way here (and thanks to the wonderful advice of Dave's mom, Maryjo) that upon arriving to my parents' house, it would be wise to end the binky saga. As soon as we walked in the door, Dave cut the binkies off and threw them away. The idea is that she would be so occupied with all the new toys and new things to do and see, that she would naturally associate many changes with the new place, including "no biny." It would be rough, but better to hide this change in among all the others. It was a sad day, probably more for me than anything. I think I'm the one with the binky problem! It's been so easy to just give her the binky when she fusses or cries. Shame on me! BUT she hasn't asked for the binky since then. Last night was rough, but probably more because it was a new place and not because of no binky. Dave and I ended up spending the night sharing a bed with both of the girls. Audrey was restless (but fell asleep pretty well), and her crying would wake Jane up, who needed cuddling to settle down. Jane usually sleeps great on her own, in her own bed, but after a certain level of tiredness (that we'd all passed) she needs to be snuggled tight before she can calm down. Oh well. There are plenty of opportunities for a nap thanks to the grandparents. :) I may attempt introducing the potty while we're in Dallas. But first things first.

Anyway, I've got a cute picture or two from the trip and will surely have more from here, but I'll have to post those later. We miss everyone SO MUCH. We're so sad so many of you won't be there when we get back in the fall. I'm trying not to think about it, but you know who you are, and just know that I love and will miss you terribly.

The Colin and Brad Show and Brian Regan

Dave and I have had the privilege to visit the State Theatre here in Ithaca twice since we've been here. Both times were to see comedy shows. The first time we went was to see Brian Regan, who is a very very funny guy. (Thanks to Shannah for calling me after she heard on the radio that he was coming and thought we'd like to go. She was right.) Seriously, we're still laughing about it a year later. The second time was yesterday for our anniversary (on the 6th) to see Colin and Brad (the guys from Who's Line is it Anyway?) do improv. It was both hilarious and impressive. They are quick! The last act blew us away. A whole stage covered with set mouse traps. Bare feet. Blindfolded. Doing a scene about fixing a tractor. Each phrase starting with the next letter in the alphabet. Singing it in true operatic fashion. A recipe for some pretty good laughs. It was so funny. And the people they pulled on stage throughout the show where absolutely the cream of native Ithacans, which actually made for an excellent spectacle. :) There were a few dirty jokes, which actually weren't funny at all, but for the most part it was clean and very very funny. It was a great anniversary gift . . . from me . . . to Dave. You're welcome, Dave. :) Nah, it was for me too. Loved it. Who knows who we'll get to see next year? Dave and I really like this kind of stuff, so we're excited to get to Dallas eventually where there will always be lots of cool stuff to see.

The Binky

I think we're going to have to enroll Audrey in Binkies Anonymous. I turned around the other day to see this--not only are those Jane's binkies (which up until then she'd been excellent about not using), but she also clearly couldn't get enough satisfaction from just one. She's annoyingly attached to the binky. I have a little bit of a love/hate relationship with it though. It worked magic with both her and Jane as babies, but it's of course a huge pain now. We just kept putting off weaning her because Jane was coming, then we were going to be moving, but I think we've waited too long. I don't think she talks as much as she could since she's always got that thing in her mouth. She does talk great when she is without it for a while. In fact, she's a regular chatterbox and it's so so cute and exciting, but . . .
We'll work on it this summer I think and let you know how it goes. Wish us luck.

Camera Practice

So, I was thrilled when Melissa Carlos taught the photography class last Saturday (wow, has it already been over a week since then??). I'd been admiring other people's pictures, wondering how I could take better ones myself. I didn't know if it was me, my camera, or what. Well, after practicing with my camera for a few days, I did learn a few little things and tried to adjust things so they'd take the quality of pictures I wanted in various settings. It was a big pain. BUT I realized that, although I have a pretty nice little camera, it just doesn't take really super pictures. So, I think I may just go ahead and look for something to upgrade it with. But we'll see; this one is still alright and works for now. Here are a few pictures I managed to take that were ok. Obviously it shows me mostly just playing around with the settings.

Little Swimmer

The other night Dave and Audrey headed over to the YMCA for a little swim. We weren't sure how she would do on her first real "'whim," but she did great! We didn't get any pictures of her in the pool, because Dave didn't take the camera, but I'm sure she was totally cute. This summer in Texas she'll get a lot of chances to perfect her swimming skills. Dave spent a few summers teaching little kids swimming lessons and was great at it, so he'll teach Audrey the ropes this summer--it will be nice to know she's a little safer around water, especially since we'll be living somewhere where there are lots of pools.
Anyway, the YMCA pool was a little bit yucky. Dave said it pretty much tasted like bodies. Disgusting. I don't think we'll go back, but it was fun anyway. He said that at first she was really scared to get in. So they walked around the pool a little bit, dipped their toes in, and eventually she let him take her in. By the end of the two hours she was letting him pull her around on her belly by her hands while she "kick! kick! kick!"ed around. This little swimming suit we found at the stuff swap helped make it all possible. So, thanks to whomever decided to get rid of it. The thing we didn't think of though was how the heck to strap her in her carseat while she was wearing it. Oh well. It all worked out ok. :)

Baby Bjorn

So, we found a STEAL at a garage sale on Saturday. I'd always wanted a Baby Bjorn, but didn't want to pay the 50 + bucks for it. We found one for $15!! That's right. And it's in perfect condition, came with the instruction manual and box and everything. It really is as nice as they make it out to be. Jane loves it too. It's SO easy to use. Really. And it's very comfortable for me and the baby. Dave gave it a whirl too and thought it was pretty cool. Anyway, if you're in the market for a baby carrier, there's my endorsement.

Dave's Theory of Legal Ethics

This is my blog. But, if David is good, sometimes I will let him post. He has been working very hard on a paper for his ethics class. He says the point of the paper is to answer the question "can a good lawyer be a good person?" which he says is "difficult if clients claim legal entitlements that dont line up with the lawyer's own personal moralty."

Without further ado, I give you David and a VERY SHORT summary of his paper:
The Dirty Hands Excuse

I know I bore everyone with my ethics talk, but it is totally interesting to me--so I am going to tell you what I think; but I will be brief.

The standard conception of legal ethics is that professionalism allows role-differentiated morality, in which lawyers should be neutral as to the morality of client objectives, and partisan as to how they pursue those objectives.

I reject this conception because 1) it denies the persistence of our morality, despite our roles; and 2) it assumes that individual bads can be justified by societal goods.

I think that personal moraliy and societal goals are different kinds of goods, so they can't combine in a simple "net calculation"--they can be compared, but one does not wipe the other away. if you do wrong personally to advance society's goals, then you have done both bad and good.

Because I don't think the two moralities combine in a net calculation, I don't believe in a "justification" (in the criminal law sense of turning "bad" into "good") rather, I think that, at best, lawyers might qualify for an "excuse"--meaning that the personal wrong they do is still wrong; but circumstances might excuse the moral culpability of the actor.

Those circumstances arise when it would be "unreasonably selfish" of the lawyer to cling to personal morality. I define "unreasonably selfish" as when you, if you were in the position of the "victim"--the person who wil be harmed most by your pursuing a legal entitlement, could still see the value of pursuing the entitlement. in that case, to decline to pursue the legal entitlement is to put your own morality before your client, before society generally, even before the victim who will be harmed by your immoral actions. and that is unreasonably selfish.

Therefore, when that burden is met by the societal goods of the action, a lawyer has little choice but to choose to do "wrong"--to dirty his hands because it would be unreasonably selfish to cling to personal morality. Therefore, because he has really no choice but to dirty himself or to seriously fail society, the lawyer is excused from the moral culpability of the action. Notice, the act is still wrong--this theory does not try to make wrong into right (justification)--but the moral culpability for the wrong actions is excused; but only if it was unreasonably selfish for the lawyer to not do it.

So a lawyer might find himself in one of three positions: client wants lawyer to pursue legal entitlement which 1) does not implicate lawyer's own personal morality; 2) does implicate lawyer's personal morality, and has no, or very little, social benefit; or 3) does implicate lawyer's personal morality and has significant social benefit (even from the perspective of the victim of the lawyer's actions).

In the first case, there is no dilemma. Hopefully, this is the case in the vast majority of our work.

In the second case, the lawyer does not qualify for the dirty hands excuse because it is not unreasonably selfish to refuse to represent such a claim (indeed, such a claim may well be abusive, illigitimate, or otherwise lack relative or internal merit). Under the standard conception, lawyers would still pursue this category of claim.

In the third case, the lawyer does face a dilemma, but to choose to dirty his hands allows him a moral excuse.

Sooooo, we are still moral agents despite our roles, and bad is not good. But, a good lawyer can still be a good person--not innocent, but not culpable.

Sorry for going on like this. I have been writing the paper for the last few days and it is all I can think about.