The biggest challenge has been keeping Oliver off of it, so that Martin gets proper turns. Martin just loves it though.
And here we are getting ready to blow out the candle on his cake.
The kids had a great time running around, and now they are asleep in their beds. A very fun and exhausting day!
Here is a beautiful picture of him, with his big beautiful brown eyes.
Showing off his teeth. He got 6 in one month! And was a real trooper and didn't complain.
Here are some recent pictures. He's big enough to ride the little trike.
Martin loves to plunk himself down in empty chairs. I was thinking I'd have to get rid of the bumbo, but he still uses it, so it will stay. He loves to play with toys, especially cars, and usually has one in each hand.
Since he's now walking, he has to wear shoes when we go out. This is the first time wearing them. He chooses to walk about 60% of the time now, and is really quite stable. He'll be running soon.
Chengdu, China
The world can be divided in many ways — rich and poor, democratic and authoritarian — but one of the most striking is the divide between the societies with an individualist mentality and the ones with a collectivist mentality.
This is a divide that goes deeper than economics into the way people perceive the world. If you show an American an image of a fish tank, the American will usually describe the biggest fish in the tank and what it is doing. If you ask a Chinese person to describe a fish tank, the Chinese will usually describe the context in which the fish swim.
These sorts of experiments have been done over and over again, and the results reveal the same underlying pattern. Americans usually see individuals; Chinese and other Asians see contexts.
When the psychologist Richard Nisbett showed Americans individual pictures of a chicken, a cow and hay and asked the subjects to pick out the two that go together, the Americans would usually pick out the chicken and the cow. They’re both animals. Most Asian people, on the other hand, would pick out the cow and the hay, since cows depend on hay. Americans are more likely to see categories. Asians are more likely to see relationships.
You can create a global continuum with the most individualistic societies — like the United States or Britain — on one end, and the most collectivist societies — like China or Japan — on the other.
The individualistic countries tend to put rights and privacy first. People in these societies tend to overvalue their own skills and overestimate their own importance to any group effort. People in collective societies tend to value harmony and duty. They tend to underestimate their own skills and are more self-effacing when describing their contributions to group efforts.
Researchers argue about why certain cultures have become more individualistic than others. Some say that Western cultures draw their values from ancient Greece, with its emphasis on individual heroism, while other cultures draw on more on tribal philosophies. Recently, some scientists have theorized that it all goes back to microbes. Collectivist societies tend to pop up in parts of the world, especially around the equator, with plenty of disease-causing microbes. In such an environment, you’d want to shun outsiders, who might bring strange diseases, and enforce a certain conformity over eating rituals and social behavior.
Either way, individualistic societies have tended to do better economically. We in the West have a narrative that involves the development of individual reason and conscience during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and then the subsequent flourishing of capitalism. According to this narrative, societies get more individualistic as they develop.
But what happens if collectivist societies snap out of their economic stagnation? What happens if collectivist societies, especially those in Asia, rise economically and come to rival the West? A new sort of global conversation develops.
The opening ceremony in Beijing was a statement in that conversation. It was part of China’s assertion that development doesn’t come only through Western, liberal means, but also through Eastern and collective ones.
The ceremony drew from China’s long history, but surely the most striking features were the images of thousands of Chinese moving as one — drumming as one, dancing as one, sprinting on precise formations without ever stumbling or colliding. We’ve seen displays of mass conformity before, but this was collectivism of the present — a high-tech vision of the harmonious society performed in the context of China’s miraculous growth.
If Asia’s success reopens the debate between individualism and collectivism (which seemed closed after the cold war), then it’s unlikely that the forces of individualism will sweep the field or even gain an edge.
For one thing, there are relatively few individualistic societies on earth. For another, the essence of a lot of the latest scientific research is that the Western idea of individual choice is an illusion and the Chinese are right to put first emphasis on social contexts.
Scientists have delighted to show that so-called rational choice is shaped by a whole range of subconscious influences, like emotional contagions and priming effects (people who think of a professor before taking a test do better than people who think of a criminal). Meanwhile, human brains turn out to be extremely permeable (they naturally mimic the neural firings of people around them). Relationships are the key to happiness. People who live in the densest social networks tend to flourish, while people who live with few social bonds are much more prone to depression and suicide.
The rise of China isn’t only an economic event. It’s a cultural one. The ideal of a harmonious collective may turn out to be as attractive as the ideal of the American Dream.
It’s certainly a useful ideology for aspiring autocrats.
Above is my progress. But I still have a lot to do, as I have all the wording "I am Speed" to do above, plus a "95" in the corner. But it's coming along.
Here's my progress. Lightening is pretty much done, except a tire, but if you recall, there is still much more to go. Going out Saturday and then being sick on Monday slowed down progress. You know you are sick, when you can't even sit up to stitch!
Oliver
Martin
Oh, and the bottom is supposed to roll like that, it's a design element. The pink reminds me of this pink sweater Lana used to have with a compass on it. That was such a nice sweater.
Crochet
Thought I would do a Q2 update, to see what I've been up to.
Knitting
Cross-stitch
Crochet
Photography / videography
I'm going to try and work on this one day a week.
Decluttering
Have done a little bit, but nowhere near what I need to do. Have given away the smallest baby clothes and some infant paraphernalia.
Today we went to Arab Street for lunch with Gary, Linda and Adam. Unfortunately, not much was open on Sunday, but we still had a great time. We walked around the area which still has a lot of the original "shop houses", which is a shop on the main floor, and the owners live on the upper floor. Not sure if owners still live there, probably is more likely used as an office. Most of the stores are fabric stores with gorgeous fabrics, as well there were rugs.
Kristi, Tyson, Cass and Paul came for a visit this week. They arrived late on Friday night / Saturday morning.
