Lab Rat

Today feels almost like spring. The sky is cloudless, the sun bright and warm. I just can't look down; the piles of snow destroy the illusion. Isabella is going through what I believe is called "stranger anxiety." If anyone other than myself of Rob looks at her, especially if that someone is a man, she freaks out. Sometimes this is cute, and I do like the way the clings tightly to me, but I feel bad when we spend time with our respective families and Isabella refuses to go anywhere near them. Anyway, today, because of nice day, Rob put on his dark sunglasses before heading outside. He came over to give us a kiss goodbye. As he got closer, Isabella's lower lip stuck out, her face crumpled, her hold on me tightened. He reached for her. She let out a wail, her face contorted with fright. Rob thought it was hilarious and insisted on torturing her in this manner several times throughout the day.

I wonder, does this mean that Isabella doesn't recognise Rob with his shades on? Or does she know it's him but the sunglasses are too scary? I don't think it's the glasses, since she's okay with holding them, or wearing them. I've read that babies can smell their mothers, but I guess not their fathers. It must not be the rest of his body that she knows, but his eyes. Hmmm, what if I put on the sunglasses? Will Isabella be scared of me with them on? She's asleep right now (the only time I can write- that girl loves keyboards) but perhaps tomorrow I'll try it.

Any bets on how she'll react?

Back to the Future

For the last week I've been reading a series of books written about an ancestor of mine that lived in mid 1800's. I've always enjoyed a well-written historical fiction, and these books are doubly interesting because 1. the events aren't just plausible, they're actual; and 2. I'm related. For every chapter the authors have written a little blurb about where they got their information and what parts they had to improvise.

While the historical setting and larger events come from sources like newspapers and state databases, the most part of the story is taken from journals and letters. It's fantastic that this family (all of them, it seems) kept meticulous journals, and even wrote poetry about their lives.

My journal writing has always been somewhat spotty. Sure, there was that year when I wrote every single day, but usually it's more along the lines of every month. So if, a couple hundred years from now, someone actually reads my journal and somehow decides my life is interesting enough to write about, how close would that story be to my actual life? The larger picture would be accurate: getting married, having a baby, etc. But would the readers know who I am? Would they see who I love, what I'm passionate about, what I believe?

Judging by entry frequency, I would come across first as the teenager who was infatuated with a certain boy, Ben* (I may have written about him once or twice, and even printed out and glued in a few of our IM conversations); and then suddenly the mother who can't get enough of her baby.

I wonder how much one can tell about a person just from the way one writes. Can you tell that I'm a sucker for classic novels like Pride & Prejudice, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia? Can you feel the deep love I have for my family? Sense the commitment I have to my religion and to my God?

I wonder...

*Name may have been changed to preserve a certain amount of dignity