A Pair of Penguins: I do Like People

A Pair of Penguins: I do Like People: Being an introvert is a strange thing. There are many aspects that come with this peculiar emotion type, and often times those aspects comp...

I do Like People

Being an introvert is a strange thing. There are many aspects that come with this peculiar emotion type, and often times those aspects completely oppose one another. We don't always make sense and are often misunderstood; even by other introverts. We have a very hard time explaining ourselves and give off the impression that we are running away when, in fact, we are trying our best to do what is healthy for us. We don't always make the right decisions but are often ridiculed when we do. So I am making this post for two reasons:

1) I hope I can explain just a little of what it is like to be an introvert.

2) To get some of the feelings that I have off my chest.

I may make this into a continuing post, but we will see. :)

I want to touch on the misconception that introverts "Don't like people" or are hermits that don't want to have any social interaction. This just is not true. Indeed, to the extrovert (Or as I like to call them, "Normal" people.) we may seem like just that. However, it is much more complicated.

Most of the introverts that I have met (Including myself) actually love people! We have a deep and abiding love for those we come in contact with and honestly and truly wish to see the best for them. While we usually only have a select group of friends that we want to hang out with, we still do, overall, care about humanity and people in general. This being said it does not mean we like being around those people.

This is where normal people get confused...

That same group of friends that we hold dear to our hearts and love to be around may come to find out that it is STILL hard to get together with us because we just want to be alone or have already made plans that day and having to be around people more than once is just too much for us. Other people just don't get that. You see, whether you are an extrovert or introvert, it has nothing to do with the people itself. It is all about where you get your energy from.

I am an introvert. My wife is an extrovert. (Yes, it gets very hard and confusing sometimes.) Sometimes we go to social functions. Whether it be around a small group or large group of people it doesn't matter. I will still get drained and be exhausted when we get home. My wife, however, will be filled with joy and want to keep talking and have the energy to spare. Sometimes, when I am having a bad day, my wife is kind enough to take the kids out for an hour or two and leave me by myself. When she comes home I often feel much better and have the energy to keep going. I love my family dearly and I don't go to functions that I am not interested in or want to support the people. So it seems like my moods and actions are contradicting how I feel, but in truth, it is not.

This is the fundamental difference. It has nothing to do with whether or not you like the people you interact with that makes you an introvert. It's where you get your energy from. Do people give you energy or drain it?

I don't like to make my posts too long so I will leave the next point for my next post.

Tootles
-R

Wow...it's been some time

It brings unexpected emotion to look back at our last Shane update. I am so grateful for this little person in my life. Oh, those cheeks are still sweet to kiss and he is talking now more than ever. He army crawls everywhere. He goes from the kitchen to my bedroom with no problem. He is great at problem solving, often getting through our makeshift barrier from the living room to the kitchen. He is happy and has 2 teeth on bottom, 3 on top and a 4th is very swollen and should cut through in the next week or so. He is down to two naps a day and wakes up around 4:30/5 every morning for at least the last week. Which means I am off to bed.

Pictures to come.

Love to all!
-H

"When You Believe"

Sorry for all of those looking for more pictures of Shane. I promise we have them and it is a little hard to post them here and on Facebook. But I will earnestly try to update and post tomorrow.

However, I have important thoughts that I must get out on paper (figuratively speaking).
We (Ron and I) are LDS (Latter-day Saint) aka Mormon. I have a solid belief in Jesus Christ in ALL of his titles. We hosted the missionaries for dinner a couple of nights back (actually hosted both sets in our ward, elders first and a week later, the sisters). It was fun to see the dynamic differences between all 4 missionaries. I also attended an additional Relief Society meeting on Tuesday evening. I give all three of these scenes so that I can express my thoughts to these amazing 5 people.

First off- To the Elder P (senior companion, 18 years old, served 6 months so far, expressed he has no idea what he is doing, feels very inadequate as a missionary): Believe in yourself. You are Son of the Almighty! His name is "I Am" for a reason. He has no question who He is. He created you! Stop listening to The Evil One! You have been to serve Jesus Christ in a full-time ministry. He loves you. So start believing He knew what he was doing when you were asked to be the senior companion.

To Elder S- (junior companion, 23, has served 1 month, struggling, but faithful): I very much appreciated your thought at dinner. There are many here to learn from you and your spirit. You have the gift of faith. Utilize that gift. You are very patient and you will be blessed because of your obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to be more like you and the kindness you treat everyone with.

To Sister Q- (don't know if junior or senior, has been serving 6 months, beautiful in every way) You are a gift of faith and joy. Thank you for serving and being humble and obedient to that prompting to serve. Yes, you are very aware of yourself and your weaknesses and strengths. I promise that as you look back and see how Father's hand has brought you to this place, you will have a great ability to endure what is on your mortal sojourn. I am excited for you to continue to grow and to be happy. You have already blessed so many people's lives. Continue and you will be blessed and happy beyond your greatest imagination.

To Sister B- (see note above, serving 7.5 months and counting) You have a great mind and are open to lots of perspective. I give similar thoughts about believing in yourself. I have been study my Primary lesson on Enoch and the account in Moses 7 about watching the Lord weep over his children is what I wish to have your read.

And to Sister D- See the note for Elder P! I would, however, make it gender specific to you. Daughter of Deity! You have come so far. Believe in yourself.

I guess what I am saying to all of these people, I really am saying to myself. I hope to listen better.

-Hannah

Shane's Six Month Update and 7th (while we are at it)

Kinda weird to have a 6 month old( ahem......now 7month old) I can't believe it.

Here are the highlights from the last 2 months:

- We celebrated Thanksgiving! S's first. It was great. S ate candied yams and mashed potatoes. He still eats yams but we have added oatmeal, avocado, and applesauce to this diet. We are going to try carrots, pumpkin, peas, and green beans soon. I am excited.

- The nurse asked at his checkup: "What are you feeding this kid? He is the size of a 9mo old!" I am thinking this is a compliment.

-Becoming more vocal. Grunts a lot and babbles all the time....

-Started solids officially. A friend of ours has a boy just a couple months older than Shane and had a TON of extra pureed foods that her boy didn't want anymore (he is on to table food). We had fun with that.

-There are a lot of things that happened between Shane's 6th and 7th month of life. He had is first Christmas (spent it at an italian dinner, pretty yummy)

-He can completely sit up on his own.

- He is staying up longer and is coming more into his own of his personality. (Sweet and funny, but a little stubborn).

-We are working on crawling and scooting. Not very successful however. Shane does well for about 5 mins on his tummy (if he has distractions) and then starts to fuss. I work with him for another 5 mins. trying to distract him, but it's not all that easy....

-He has 2 solid bottom teeth and really likes to gnaw on things, including my finger. He has only bitten me twice while nursing. But not too hard. If so, we would not be nursing still.

Lots of other things have happened, little things like discovering moving toys back and forth from hand to hand. He follows sound. He has started Stranger Danger looks and knows Mommy and Daddy. It is fun to be loved and have a little person be excited when you enter the room.

I can't think of any more little things off the top of my head (thus why I need to write more often.) But here are some pictures from the last couple of months.


Here are only a few because the rest are on Ron's phone and he is at work, but I HAVE to get these pictures up!

Oh, Yeah...That one time Shane turned 4 mos. & 5 mos. old!

This is Hannah writing under the name of Ron. He has most of our pictures saved to his google drive, so I thought I would write under his profile.

There is no particular reason why I didn't write an update on Shane when he turned 4 months old, or for when he turned 5 months old either. There was no pressing need with work, or any special occasion that was consuming my attention. So, there you have it.

By way of information:
He was in the 89th % for his weight,
the 98th% for his height and,
the 55th% for his head circumference at his 4 month checkup.

He can roll from back to front and front to back now. We have let him taste applesauce, but we haven't really started solids (my goals it to get to Thanksgiving, which is about a week before he is 6 mos. old.). He can sit up by himself for about 3 secs before tipping over. He sits in his bumbo a lot. He is getting two cute little teeth in the front. They haven't popped threw the skin yet, but you can see the great big bumps they are creating in his gum line. He talks all the time (more like grunting) and chews on everything. He has great "Slobber Bombs" as Ron calls them and is growing up well.

And without further adieu, here are some pics.

Morning snuggles! 

Before bed time. So cute!

Some Father/Son bonding. (I Love It!)

We spiked his hair after a bath and went to church this way. He looks so impressed in this picture! NOT!

Starting to drool ALL of the time.

We decided to draw on small pumpkins this year instead of carving. Can you tell which one belongs to who?

Ron had left to get something from the room and I was working. This is what he came back to. Not even a cry! Just talking to himself.

Tummy time at Minky's

His Halloween costume. Thank you Aunt Alisa!

His other Halloween costume. (From the same day :) ) Thank you Nanny and Kiley!

Getting ready for the feast!

Playing with Minky's hats!

Here are some videos

I don't know if you will be able to see this, but he LOVES stretching out his legs. He also arches his back often.

                                     

Have We Lost Our Humanity?

This is a question that most people don't even consider. Most of the time, I would say, we go about our daily life and never even think about how distant we are to everyone around us. When we walk down the street and pass by someone, what is our natural instinct? For must people I would say it would be just walk around them without saying a word. Some people may venture far enough to lift their head and node or even say "Hi" as they pass by. But how many people would stop and talk to them? How many would give the other a hug? What about a kiss? Most people who will read this blog may look at these questions and snarl there nose at the idea of getting that close to a total stranger, and to be completely honest, I am right there with you. So I have one more question.

What is wrong with us???

Human beings are social creatures. Despite how solitary you may think you are the simple fact remains that we, as human beings, crave contact with other human beings including physical and emotional interaction. We were meant to be with one another. It is in our DNA. I want you to take a moment and think about "The old days". I'm talking about back when America was still pretty new. Think about the people of that age. We still had much of our culture from England at that time and it was not uncommon to greet someone with a hug or even a small kiss on the cheek. Today, they still greet people with a kiss in Europe, though I suspect that has greatly diminished as well. I once heard of a study that was done on American teenagers compared with teenagers in Europe. They found that coming out of school, American teenagers where all either walking alone barely acknowledging anyone around them, hunched over looking at their cell phones, or if they were in a group, they were not making much contact with the others. The European teenagers, however, were quite the contrast. While they still had some of the same attributes, the researchers noticed that much more people where leaving the school with arms intertwined or holding hands or hugging goodbye. I wish I had a reference for this, but I was only told this by my professor in college. Though I don't have a reference, there are plenty of studies that show the importance of touch. One such being this article from the NY Times.http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/health/23mind.html?_r=0

I believe the hesitation we have to be close to another person is primarily instinctive and primal. When we think of the period of the "Hunter Gatherer", or prehistoric time period, it's easy to see why we are hesitant to get close to anything. Back then getting close to another person or any living thing could potentially mean death, and if you think about it, we really haven't evolved much since then. We are still living life watching over out backs and being scared of death. So we trust nothing. And sure, we have good reason with the world we live in.

But just because it is instinctive does not mean it is what we need or really what our body wants. We need each other. We need physical touch. I don't know what it is but there is some sort of energy that is passed from one person to another when you are touched. Don't believe me? Watch this video and listen how these total strangers started to care for the others after just a brief moment of awkwardness.



We are social creatures and need to get back to being social..... And this is coming from one of the most anti social people you may know. I have some work to do.