To Coach or Not?

MSNBC.COM -- Women who were coached gave birth an average of 13 minutes faster than women who were given no instruction. The women studied all gave birth and without an epidural and averaged 14 hours, making 13 minutes seem like possibly not worth it. Especially since they're now studying a possible link between decreased bladder capacity post-pregnancy in women who were coached.

And couldn't coaching add more stress to mom and baby and possibly even coach-slash-dad? Especially if mom yells at dad to shut up? (I don't remember this happening in our case, but I've heard plenty of stories where someone has had to be told, and sometimes tersely "You know what? I know you're trying to be helpful and I know I asked you to be here. I know this isn't going to sound grateful. But shut up and go away for awhile. I love you, but I can't have you here right now.")

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Snowman!

Rachel shouts "Snowman!" anytime Jack appears on TV.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Doppelgänger is a german word

Fittingly enough, Rachel's is German. How freaky is this?

Santa Claus = Coming

Rachel saw Santa on "Miracle on 34th. Street" a few weeks ago and pointed to the screen and said "Who dat?" We told her and when he'd go off the screen she'd call out to him. Since then, she'd make sure we saw Santa wherever she saw him. Until the last few days. Now, if she sees Santa she says "coming!" We wonder if they're singing "Santa Claus is coming to town" at school?

Joy of Discovery

There is nothing quite like experiencing the joy vicariously as your children experience joy themselves. Though I learned this weekend that seeing someone else's child experience that joy for the first time can also be really wonderful. To see this little four or five year old, dressed like a princess, dancing with a 7-foot tall Sherrif Woody, to see how big her eyes were, how gigantic her smile was, it was just so cool.

We went to Disneyland this last weekend. Rachel, who knew of Mickey Mouse, only from her diapers, would not stop saying "Mickey Mo" Every single likeness, some so small we missed them, she made sure we saw. She was just amazed by the 6-foot tall one, but was reluctant to go that close to him until Cinderella and Lori gave her a lot of reassurance and stood between her and Mickey for the picture.

The park was crowded, we didn't get to go on many rides and it probably wasn't in our top 20 best trips, but I doubt Rachel realized that. Sadly, it will end up being awhile before we get to go again, so as far as "last hurrahs" go, I was more of a whimper. But we all had a great time.

I hope it's only coincidental that Rachel, her mom and her grandma all were pretty sick, Rachel the next day, her grandma the day after that and her mom the day after that. Rachel's still sick almost a week later and her mom's not doing so great, either. No sleep in our house these days.