My Son, the Goat

So, I have to confess...I wasn't paying as good of attention as I should have been. But, who would have thought that, in the time that it took me to send a text to my husband, my five month old (with no teeth and sitting on my lap)could manage to gnaw off part of a paper bookmark and swallow it?! It was such a short text and I was only looking away for a few seconds. This just shows me how much of a distraction cell phones can be and how much more diligent I need to be with him. Luckily, he didn't choke and he seems to be fine. I think he's actually quite proud of himself...

Christmas

When I stop to think about it, a lot of what makes the Christmas season seem Christmassy to me is from the media (i.e. Christmas music and movies). Last night, we decided to buy our very first Christmas tree (we usually just go back home for Christmas) and we decorated it as we listened to Christmas music. Tonight, we're getting together with my husband's siblings to watch Christmas movies and kick-off the season. Can you imagine Christmas without Christmas songs on the radio? I am very grateful for these forms of media to help us celebrate such a special time of the year.

Thanksgiving

This past Thanksgiving made me think a lot about family traditions that I had as we grew up. One of them was to gather around the TV and watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (the one with all the huge balloons like Snoopy floating down New York streets). In the spirit of continuing some of these traditions, I gathered our little family to watch just a few minutes of the parade to remind me of growing up. Maybe the TV will be worked into some of our new family traditions?

Infant Lab

Last Friday I took Tyler to participate in one of the research projects done in the BYU infant lab by Dr. Porter. They put the brain activity monitoring little hat on his head and he and I got to watch the TV screen as short and long caterpillars were displayed with matching short and long beeps. Then, they mismatched the caterpillars and beeps to see if (at 5 mos), he could detect something as "off." While I'm not sure how helpful he was to the study (he kept trying to grab at the screen or look at me with a quizzical look), I thought it was really cool that TVs and some forms of media can be used to try to understand the world of babies. Plus, he was pretty cute in that little hat! (They even emailed a picture to me to keep!)

Content Analysis Project

As I coded for the research project this past week (a little late, I know), I began to realize how much stuff I miss when I'm not looking for it. I'm much more aware of product placement and advertising in movies, now. For example, Budweiser was the main alcohol in 10 Things I Hate About You. Also, I'm a lot more aware of the indifferent attitude towards alcohol, tobacco, and drug use by teenagers that movies portray. Furthermore, I didn't remember all of those sexual innuendos when I watched it when I was younger. I'm not sure if it's better that I didn't notice, or if it's better to be aware of the content.

Sexual Content

As I did the assignment for class this week, one of the things I noticed was how surprised I was that there wasn't any sexual content in one of the episodes. I think it's a sad comment on me that I kind of expect sex to be in the shows these days, but I still watch it. (Not to give the wrong impression, I don't watch shows with tons of sex, just mostly innuendo.) This assignment really made me think, and I wonder how viewing sexual content in the media really affects me...

Movie Speak

Have you ever found yourself in the middle of a conversation of two RMs who decide to speak in the language they learned on their mission...which you don't know? You feel a little confused and awkward, and maybe you wonder how to participate in the conversation or if you should just stand there. This used to happen to me all the time when we spent time with my husband's family, except for they're all speaking in English! I'll call it "movie speak" and it happens when they have a whole conversation based upon lines from various movies. I used to be so confused when all of a sudden their conversation wouldn't make sense according to the context and then they would burst out laughing due to the movie lines. Have you ever been victim to this? For a while I tried to get them to swing the conversation back towards normal speech, but then, when that didn't quite work, I decided "if you can't beat them, join them," and I now pay great attention to each movie I watch--scouring them for potential comebacks. :)