Fall is coming!

During this last hectic week, there were two glorious, glorious days where the sun did not shine as bright, the temperature was below 90 degrees, and there was that delicious, smoky, change is on the way smell in the air. I do not know if anyone else gets quite as euphoric and nostalgic as I do when that autumn smell comes drafting in from wherever it drafts in from, but it is my favorite time of the year.

By coincidence, I am taking a neuroscience class this semester, and one topic this week happened to be on scent recalled memory associations, although it was not covered in quite as much detail as I would have liked. I am sure most have heard that your strongest memories are tied to scent, and yes there is an anatomical/physiological basis for this too. Beyond this, much is not known, as most of our consciousness is a mystery still. The mystery of consciousness is why it is wonderful to be alive, yet it is also depressing in that it reminds us of our own mortality.

I digress though. The euphoria that the fall air gave me (I must have had some pretty enjoyable events in my life around fall to make me feel like this!) got me thinking about other memories that are associated with smell. To my surprise, I found that I have mostly pleasant memories associated with smell. For example thanksgiving dinners, the smell of grass, cucumber-melon, and even slightly burnt engine oil from an out of tune truck, strangely enough, which I tied back to my grandfathers pick-up.

So this brought up the question, what pleasant memories can I make for my daughter? What will she remember? Hopefully she will remember baking cookies, thanksgiving dinners, running around in the grass and myriads of other pleasurable events that will bring emotions flooding back at a single smell.

The Caffeine has gotten me!

Funny story. I have recently begun drinking caffeine 2 weeks ago. I did not have any when I woke up today. I felt tired, shaky, weak, and had a bad headache. The hypochondriac in me kicked in. OMG I Took tylenol then I drank 4 beers my livers failing! WTF Do I do?!?! Then I thought about the coffee. I had a cup, and sure enough I was better. I don't like feeling like that, but I need the stimulation at this point of my life. Note to self: don't let kid get so overloaded that she needs stimulants to make it through the day.

Balancing work and play

Today has been a mediocre day, actually this whole weekend has been pretty mediocre. One problem that faces any parent that has a lot of stress in life, e.g. college and work, needs to find the time to balance interacting with their children and personal recreation time. I am sure many of you agree, this is very hard to manage. For example, I have been going to college and working at college for the past year, 8:00 - 5:00ish everyday during the week. This leaves Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday to accomplish the above mentioned tasks. For the most part, we have not been doing anything personally for us, not in the least part due to the lack of funds. This weekend we tried to do something for us one day, something for our daughter another day, and have a "lazy day" on memorial day. This did not work out so well. It has been so long since we tried to go out and do something that we could not decide on what to do. On Saturday, we just kind of went in circles and stayed around the house. Today was a bit better. We actually got to the pool, went around shopping a bit, went out to eat, and even managed to clean up the house!

Perhaps the next weekend will be a bit more decisive. When the stress levels get high, I think a lot of people forget that this rubs off on their kids too. I for one am in an absolute need to get out more at this point in my life. I think it would calm me more during the week, leading to more productivity, including better parenting!

Where do Nightmares Come From?

I've been pondering a question today that I know almost nothing about. Researched some and still know almost nothing! I was thinking about what makes children, or adults for that matter, naturally scared of something. I am sticking more to young children while pondering this because, they do not have as many cultural and developmental influences as an adult. Has anyone seen a very young child have what could be considered a nightmare (say, under one year of age)?

Using my daughter as an example, it seemed that she was fearless for the longest time. Then there came a day when my daughter was suddenly, absolutely terrified of a dancing Jumbah doll It is a stuffed toy that makes farting sounds and bounces up and down. She had loved it the week prior. When I say terrified I mean that she was literally start shaking and run to the other side of the room screaming "NO! NO! NO!". Well, so much for that toy I though, and proceeded to use it as an effective way to keep my daughter from climbing the stairs. Eventually she got used to the doll, but was still scared of it. We couldn't even say the name Jumbah without getting a firm "No!" out of her.

This brings me to the present. Where did she learn to become scared of this doll? Was it a nightmare? Some trigger in her developing mind telling her to be scared of plump round fuzzy things that farted? *insert fat American joke here* It begs the question, are we hard wired from birth to fear certain things, or does or brain randomly make fear circuits, for lack of a better use of words. I believe there is a biological reason for why a lot of people fear spiders, snakes, etc... across cultural boundaries, but what creates the eccentric fears that seem to have no basis in previous experience? More research is in order I guess.

Where's the us time?

Making that last post made me realize that I am full on in mommy mode still. I do not have any classes right now during this part of the summer, so I am with my daughter all the time everyday, and it is showing I think :) My husband is gone most of the day working in a laboratory trying to get experience for grad school and/or work. Weekends are off though, so I guess we are kind of living up to the typical "American Nuclear Family". Just need 1.5 more kids!