Books on Columbine

On April 20, 1999, I was a Columbine sophomore traveling home from a weekend in Vail for the Future Business Leaders of America state competition. We didn't know that anything was wrong until we pulled into our neighborhood around lunchtime and noticed several helicopters hovering over our school. I will always be grateful that I was kept safe on that day and spared the trauma experienced by my friends and classmates. In the aftermath of the tragedy, I remember listening to the widely varying accounts of students and the media and thinking that no one would ever really know the truth of what occurred that day or why.

A decade later, two valiant attempts have been made to tell the entire story in book form, from the killers' childhoods through the controversial detective work of the Jeffco sheriff's office. I began with Columbine: A True Crime Story by local Rocky Mountain News reporter Jeff Kass. I have to admit, this version didn't live up to my expectations. He went off on unnecessary tangents on subjects such as the history of the Wild West and several generations of Eric and Dylan's family history. His approach seemed to be to present the reader with all of the information in one place, but without jumping to any conclusions -- the approach I preferred before starting the book. However, after ten years, I now think that it's time to draw some sort of conclusion to the most pressing question: why?

The second book, Columbine by online news magazine Salon reporter Dave Cullen, was exactly what I needed to read. Cullen not only presented all the facts, including many more stories of victims and a more detailed account of the actual attack, but also presented a thorough psychological analysis of Eric and Dylan from leading experts. His sections on teacher Dave Sanders and principal Frank DeAngelis were particularly touching. I would highly recommend this book to anyone left confused by conflicting media accounts and police cover-ups that have occurred over the years.

One other recommendation, not specifically about Columbine...We Need to Talk About Kevin, a 2003 novel by Lionel Shriver, was an enthralling read. The author presents the life story of a fictional high school shooter from the perspective of his mother. This story about raising a probable psychopath (a term generally recognized as describing Eric Harris) is a haunting page-turner.

Making Yogurt in the Crockpot

I know this sounds a bit eccentric, but it is sooooooooooooo easy, guys! And totally worth it!

Check out this blog for detailed instructions, but here's how it works for me (so you can see how easy it really is):

5:00 Right about when I'm starting to make dinner, I pour 1/2 gallon of milk into the crockpot and turn it on low.

7:30 When I'm doing dishes after putting Baby to bed, I turn off the crockpot.

10:30 When I'm about to go to bed, I stir in 1/2 cup of yogurt (yep, plain regular yogurt) and cover the crock pot with a bath towel.

The next morning: I wake up to 2 quarts of delicious, creamy yogurt! Ladle it into some old yogurt containers and I'm all set.

See how easy that is? You don't need any special equipment or ingredients. I've been making yogurt for a couple months, and you don't even need to buy a new "starter" each time...just save 1/2 cup from your last batch. It will turn out a little bit more runny than store bought yogurt, but it's really not very different. I've read here that you can just add 1/2 cup of powdered milk at the beginning to thicken it up a bit. This blogger also recommended to add a spoonful of jam per bowl when you serve it for flavor.

It's nice knowing exactly what we're eating without worrying about too much sugar or artificial sweeteners. Baby loves this yogurt plain and I usually have it in a smoothie or with homemade granola (another easy treat!).

I'll let you do the math to see how much money you save with 5 minutes of hands-on effort: How does the price of 1/2 gallon of milk compare to two full quarts of yogurt? I felt like a criminal after discovering how amazingly easy this is and not sharing it with all of you, so now I can sleep again :).

Love and Marching Band

Just some thoughts for you today.

Lately, on our afternoon walks, I've noticed the faint sound of a drumline practicing in the distance. This has lead to nostalgic memories of marching band, which, I'll admit, was 99.9% torture. From the 100 degree, 40-hour August Band Camp week to the frostbitten fingers on metal piccolo of late November, it was brutal.

Naturally, I subconsciously sought a mate who had gone through similar trials; another Band Kid. Little did I know while dating that Nick, a talented french horn player, was a marching band impostor. He attended approximately 10% of rehearsals. His uniform was...get this...a sweatshirt and jeans.

A sweatshirt. And jeans.

No starched white gauntlets, no tall feather plume. No oppressive uniforms individually tailored by loving band moms to fit an army of gangly teens. Sorry, honey, but we were in different leagues.

Which leads us to another dilemma. When a spit-valve-spewing brass marries a prissy-perfectionist-woodwind, to which instrument do we direct our posterity? The only neutral territories are piano, strings, and *shudder* percussion. We'll just have to see where her natural tendencies lie, because in the end she's going to grow up to be whatever she wants to be...as long as she's in the band.

Halloween

What kind of a mom forgets to charge the camera battery on Halloween and is therefore limited to a couple blurry pictures? Sorry about that. Here's our sweet little chicken:

She was just happy to have her paci outside of bed (which is against the rules!). We constructed the beak out of orange paper and scotch tape about 5 minutes before we left to go trick-or-treating.

At least we were prepared for a snowy holiday! Instead, we had beautiful weather and a chicken who kept saying "Hot. Hot. Hot." So she ended up just being chicken-legs-sweaty-hair-beak-girl.

Happy Halloween!

There you go!

Baby has been working on developing her vocabulary lately. It seems that every day she learns at least one new word. One of my favorites is "coke", which is her version of "coat". Also, whenever she catches her reflection in a mirror or window, she pauses, pets her hair, and says "pretty". She's very right!

Her best phrase so far is "There you go!". I realized that for some reason, I say it all the time. Whenever Baby fits a puzzle piece in, stands back up after falling down, or throws her pacifier in bed where it belongs (oh, and she calls her "paci" her "sassy"), I invariably reply with an enthusiastic "There you go!". Baby has been following my example...

1. Yesterday, Baby informed me that she had finished her lunch by both signing and stating "Done. Done. Done. Done." I asked, "Are you sure you're done, Baby?", because she still had quite a bit left. Yes, she was sure. I cleaned her face and hands, removed her bib, and picked her up from her high chair. Almost immediately, she began screaming "More! More! More! More!" and flinging her body in the direction of her food. OK, Baby, you can have more! Once she was strapped back in her chair with her food before her, she said "There you go."

2. Baby has some little animal-shaped boards with holes around the border and a shoelace to "sew" with. She will sit quietly and work on these for a long time, and each time she completes a stitch, she says a very quiet "There you go."

3. Baby has been teaching her stuffed bunny (her "lovey") how to walk. This makes sense, since in her case, walking didn't exactly come naturally either! She holds him up on his hind legs and says "Walking, walking, walking" as he cruises along next to her, with the occasional "There you go!" for encouragement.

4. Now that we've been having colder days and we're spending more time indoors, I have started playing a Toddler Songs CD every so often. Baby LOVES it, dancing her little heart out. The first time we listened to it, whenever a song ended, she started to panic a little bit, saying "Eh? Eh?" and looking to me to fix it. A few seconds later, when the next song began, Baby would visibly relax and say "There you go".

Baby and I went to Lil' Biggs on one of the colder days. She spent the entire time pushing around either a baby stroller or this shopping cart, ignoring the huge indoor sandbox, bouncy house, and other fun toddler equipment. I'm not sure if that was worth the $6 we paid to get in!

So, there you go!

A Rather Boring Post

Boy, am I a lucky mom! We went up to Fort Collins to visit my in-laws on Saturday and came home on Sunday...without Baby! She's spending a few days on the farm with her grandparents, being spoiled rotten. Of course, I have a long list of things that I want to accomplish while she's gone, but today...well...I sortof goofed off instead. I slept in. I went shopping; not boring grocery shopping, but fun shopping at Old Navy, Hobby Lobby, and Salvation Army - I like searching for treasures :). Sure, all I bought was a scarf, but it was heaven to be able to try on clothes in the dressing room and take my sweet time. I also went to the gym and didn't have to worry about Baby catching swine flu at the daycare center. Nick and I are off to a fancy dinner at Johnny Carino's (I know, it's not local, but their Bowtie Festival is too tasty to resist).

Maybe I'm the one being spoiled rotten!

Tomorrow I intend to winterize the garden a bit; just pull out all the dead veggie plants, add some compost and mulch, and plant my garlic bulbs.

Oh, and for those who are worried...Baby is officially walking now! I had a feeling that a change of scenery might inspire her to try it again. It turns out that a half dozen cats and dogs are enticing enough for our "under-motivated child" to chase. Just a couple hours after arriving at the grandparents' farm, she decided to stand up and, in her own words, "walk walk walk walk walk". Everyone dropped what we were doing to applaud her efforts, so she rewarded us with the proudest little smile. A couple wobbles and crashes later and she's still walking all over the place!

AND she got her first two teeth this weekend! Well, just the little white tips are poking up from her gums. Only 3 days before her 18 month birthday! The best part? She didn't even complain at all. She never woke up in the middle of the night; in fact, she's been sleeping 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. every night! What a good baby!

Good Books on Autism

Autism is so prevalent in our children's generation that I would imagine most of us have been touched by it in some way. I won't pretend to be at all knowledgeable on the subject, but I wanted to pass on a few good book recommendations that I have found inspiring or educational:

Autism's False Prophets: Bad Science, Risky Medicine, and the Search for a Cure by Paul A. Offit, M.D.

Dr. Offit is chief of Infectious Diseases and director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. I am absolutely fascinated by the influence our media has over public opinion, and in his book, Dr. Offit explains away some of the confusion surrounding autism-related theories (such as parents' fear of vaccines caused by some rather questionable science and unbalanced media coverage). I would highly recommend this book for new parents who fear they can't fully trust their doctor's recommendations to vaccinate; at least this will give you one side of the story.

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Sevant by Daniel Tammet

This book is incredible. Mr. Tammet is (or was, when he wrote this) a twenty-something autistic sevant, highly functioning on the autistic spectrum and living a completely independent life in spite of his challenges. His mind is amazing; he sees numbers as colors and shapes and is able to memorize an entirely foreign language in one week. I was enthralled by his description of memorizing the number pi to over 22,000 digits. He describes the numbers as a landscape, complete with rolling hills and geographic features that help him recall each and every digit perfectly.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

This was an interesting fictional novel narrated from the viewpoint of a 15-year old autistic boy. He sees the world around him from a completely unemotional perspective. One scene that sticks out in my mind was his feeling of being overwhelmed by all of the people and objects in a busy train station. He needs to find the information desk. While most people would simply scan the room until finding it, Christopher must place his hands next to his eyes to physically block out all of the extra stimuli, such as advertisements and faces. Once he finds the sign he is looking for, he imagines a red line on the floor between where he is standing and where he needs to be and walks along the line to cross the station. This book is a quick read and very interesting.