Oktoberfest 2009

When I think of Nashville, Oktoberfest is admittedly not the first thing that comes to mind. However, we went to Oktoberfest on Saturday and were pleasantly surprised. It was great! It had everything that an Oktoberfest should have - brats, beer, good music, lederhosen, funnel cakes... Luckily Katie brought her camera to capture all of the fun.

Harper enjoying her first funnel cake...

...and her first beer. Just kidding. It's monday and I just wanted to make sure you were all awake and paying attention.

There were lots of cool vendors selling all kinds of things. Harper got a new hat. It's an olive! Here's a link to the vendor's site. She couldn't fit into any of the kid sized hats, so she had to get an adult sized one. Yes, my child has a pumpkin for a head. But that's ok. She has a lot of brains to fit in there so she needs the extra room.

We heard a great band called Space Capone. They were awesome and Harper loved them. She even got a shout out from the band because of her dancing skills.

Harper and Laurie found a puddle to splash in.

She took it pretty hard when we had to say good bye to the puddle. Check out that lip.

She recovered quickly, though.

All in all, it was a great day and I think we are all looking forward to going back next year!

You Have Got To Be Kidding Me.

Something that I though a lot about when I was pregnant and think even more about now is how in the world I am going to help Harper have a healthy self image. I think this is one of the biggest and most difficult tasks that moms of daughters have. It seems like the whole world is working against us on this one. Case in point - below is a picture from a recent Ralph Lauren ad campaign.

Seriously? I'm pretty sure that the laws of physics would not allow this air brushed form to actually exist in nature. When asked to comment on it, Ralph's reps gave this statement:

"For over 42 years, we have built a brand based on quality and integrity. After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman's body. We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the caliber of our artwork represents our brand appropriately."

I think that all of the retouching and airbrushing that magazines and ad agencies do is absolutely ridiculous. French legislators feels the same way and are in the process of drafting a law that would require labels to be added to airbrushed photos. You can read more about that here.

Until our culture decides to change, what are some things that we can do to help our daughters (and ourselves) have realistic and healthy self images? Any thoughts?

What Did You Say?

Don't you hate TV commercials that are 10 times louder than the show you are watching? Well, finally someone is doing something about it. The FCC already mandates that commercials can be no louder than the loudest parts of the programming they accompany. However, this has a gaping loop hole - watching an episode of 24 that climaxes in a burst of gunfire is one thing; a commercial that's as loud as a gunshot from start to finish is another. To close this loophole, Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) introduced a bill in the House of Representatives last year, the Commercial Advertising Loudness Mitigation Act (CALM). CALM would require the FCC to enact regulations prohibiting commercials from being "excessively noisy or strident". The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a hearing to consider the bill today. In addition, for those consumers who don't wish to bet their eardrums on the legislative process, TVs featuring Dolby Volume, a technology that automatically flattens out the sound spikes of commercials, have been on the market for a little over two years. I'm pretty sure the next TV we buy will have this feature.

Her Father's Daughter

Last night Harper and I were playing on the floor in the living room. I grabbed her box of toys that we keep downstairs and she was having fun pulling everything out of it. The usual toys were there - a baby doll, some dinosaurs, a ball, etc. Then she pulled something unexpected out of the box. A Pair Of My Underwear. That's right. It was in her toy box. She proceeded to say "Hat" and put it on her head. I'm not going to go into how she learned that trick (Rob). I'm guessing that she swiped the underwear and stashed it in her toy box when we were folding laundry in the living room over the weekend. If I've said it once, I've said it a hundred times... This kid cannot be trusted.

When The Science Hits The Fan - Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize for medicine was announced yesterday. It was awarded to 3 Americans, Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider, and Jack Szostak. They collectively discovered the mechanism that chromosomes use to preserve themselves while they undergo countless rounds of cell division. They found that a stretch of DNA at the ends of the chromosomes (called telomeres) protect the chromosomes from unraveling kind of like the plastic ends of shoelaces protect them from becoming frayed (those plastic ends are called aglets by the way).

When I heard who won this year's pirze, I was happy for a couple reasons. First, it's 3 Americans - cheesy I know but I am still a patriot at heart even when the Olympics aren't going on. Secondly, 2 women were awarded the prize - maybe even more cheesy, but there is still some disparity between male and female scientists even today although it's getting better. Thirdly, Carol Greider was a graduate student in Elizabeth Blackburn's lab. This is cool because grad students are usually the workhorses of the lab and get little recognition for their contributions (however, this was not the case in the lab that I did my graduate work). I think it's awesome that someone's grad school work could potentially lead to the Nobel Prize.

Pumpkin Patch 2009

On Saturday, Rob, Harper, Katie, and I went to the pumpkin patch. It was an absolutely beautiful day for pumpkin picking and picture taking. The pumpkin picking went great. We got several perfectly shaped pumpkins. The picture taking, on the other hand, was much more challenging this year. Last year, I could just sit Harper down and she would look at the camera and smile. I would say that in 90% of the pictures I took this year, her head was turned or if she was looking at the camera, she was not smiling. These next 3 pictures are perfect examples:

I had slightly better luck once we got the pumpkins home:

While I didn't get as many good pictures as I would have liked, we all had a good time picking out pumpkins. I think the highlight of the outing for Harper was helping Rob push the wheelbarrow (there was much crying and gnashing of teeth when she found out that we couldn't take it home). All in all it was a successful trip. Yay Fall!

One More Day

We're going to the pumpkin patch tomorrow! I can't wait. I've been excited all week. We're going to the same one that we went to last year. When I look back at these pictures, I'm amazed at how my little baby has turned into a little girl. Look for new pumpkin pictures next week!