Emmelyn talking

Emmelyn provides us with much entertainment for a person who can't say much. She does coo, gurgle and flail her arms and legs about.

Emmelyn at play

Emmelyn loves playing on her little gym, which has dangly things and music that plays from a bear. Here is a video of her enjoying some play time!

Utah state fair: It's not Minnesota

After three years in Utah, we finally made it to the state fair. One word sums up the experience: lackluster.
As born and bred midwesterners, we were expecting the kitsch that defines the Minnesota State Fair. But here in Utah, there were no Sweet Martha's Cookies. No "all you can drink" milk stand. No Ye Olde Mill. No personality.
To say the least, we were bummed. There was one large butter sculpture, but only one. The rest of the "fair" (if you want to call it that), was more like a big flea market. Shady carnies pushing "As Seen on TV" knife sets and other garbage. There wasn't even a very eclectic food selection (the words "pronto pup" were nowhere to be seen).
There were hardly any animals, but that was probably OK for this year's trip. We started through the pig barn, where there were some cute piglets, but then I got nervous that Em might catch some sort of disease and we hightailed it out of there.
The highlight was probably the pig races --an act from Arkansas where a group of razorbacks ran around a track. It provided mild entertainment, but the act was from Arkansas. I think the Utah State Fair needs to find its own identity. It's got nothing on the great Minnesota get together, in my opinion.

My stockmarket tip: Infant feeding companies will never dip

One time after moving to Utah, I did a friend of a friend a favor by attending a Mary Kay makeover session. The friend’s friend had recently decided to become a Mary Kay consultant to make some extra cash during the economic downturn. My job that day was to be her guinea pig: She got to practice doing makeup on someone; I got some free Mary Kay goodies. Part of her job was also to encourage me to join the Mary Kay bandwagon as a consultant. The biggest selling point: Cosmetics is a recession-proof industry. I declined to become a makeup saleswoman. Not my favorite thing to pressure friends to buy lipstick from me and besides, everyone who knows me knows that I faithfully plunk down way too much money at Merle Norman whenever I’m back in Fargo-Moorhead and my trusty beauty consultant there sells me on the latest trend.

But, since Emmelyn’s birth, I’ve learned that there is another sure –fire recession-proof industry: Infant feeding. The people at Medela and Enfamil really know what they’re doing. These products are necessities, and when you really need them, you would go to any length to get them. The 24-hour Wal-Mart should really jack up their prices on Enfamil from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. Desperate dads all over the valley would pay top dollar for a can of premade formula when they realize they’ve run out and they’ve promised their significant other they’d take the 3:30 a.m. feeding with said formula that they forgot to pick up.

And the marketing people at Medela are geniuses. Without getting into too much detail, let’s just say the Medela Pump in Style has been an integral part (and will continue to be an integral part) of my life since Emmy arrived. But you start to use it and realize, hmm, it sure would be nice to have an extra set of bottles so I’m not washing the same three in the sink all the time between feedings. So you look online and there it is –the “extra bottle set” for $16.99. Then you notice the “breastfeeding gift set” for a mere $29.99 (I got this as a shower gift from a wise soul who must’ve known how handy freezer bags and spare parts can be). And a few weeks later, it dawns on you that a second pair of Medela “connectors” and “shields” for a steal of $10.99 a piece would do wonders for the work that is washing, drying and using all these parts several times a day. All of a sudden you realize that a good chunk of your paycheck has someone gone to the smart folks at Medela … and just when you think you’ve spent enough, you open up that extra set of connectors to realize that you also need to buy a separate pack of membranes (at the low value of $5.99) and valves (also $5.99) to make that spare set of connectors usable. Sheesh. You would think the connectors would come with that stuff in the box, but no. If Medela did that, consumers wouldn’t plunk down extra money and the Medela stock would probably not been in the presumably cozy state that it’s at.

Curious about Medela, since their products are suddenly a must-have for me, I googled their company Web site. Here is their history: “Founded in 1961 by Olle Larsson in Zug, Switzerland, Medela continues to grow under the ownership of the Larsson family. Medela serves customers through a worldwide network of distribution partners in more than 90 countries and its 13 subsidiaries in the United States, Switzerland, Canada, Germany, Sweden, France, Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg), Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, China and Spain. The company entered the United States more than 25 years ago; its U.S. headquarters are located in McHenry, Illinois.”

I’d have to say the Larssons’ are probably some of the smartest entrepreneurs I know! Wish I’d thought of building a company in the “post-natal” field! Guess I’ll just have to settle for supporting it through many, many purchases of their supplies. In honor of this, here are some cute new photos of Em:

Emmelyn resting

Emmelyn loves to snuggle, and we've gotten into the habit of letting her crawl into bed for some naps. Here is a photo of her snuggled up with dad.

Emmelyn at night

Cool blog

My former editor at The Forum, Mary Jo, recently started blogging. I love her blog! Her husband Heath, worked in the sports department with Joe. We've stayed in touch, although we haven't had a chance to see them in person since our wedding. MJ gave me some great advice on c-sections before my surgery, as she went through one herself six months ago when she delivered twin boys. Since she's a fellow journalist who loves her job, I can relate to much of what she writes about. I think my feelings on balancing work and motherhood will be very similar to hers. I thought a recent entry she wrote on that topic was fantastic. Check it out at:

http://minivanmom.areavoices.com/2010/09/09/the-working-mom-dilemma/