Ross, E. (2007, May). Exploring the impact of weight cycling on women's well-being: Disruptions to body-self relations. Presented at Inter-Actions: Emerging Voices. Transforming visions of feminism. University of Windsor, Windsor, ON.


Ross, E. (2007, May). The discourse of dissatisfaction: Exploring women's body experiences using pictures and words. Presented at Inter-Actions: Emerging Voices. Transforming visions of feminism. University of Windsor, Windsor, ON.

Ross, E. (2007, June). Disruption and disembodiment: Challenges, blocks, and barriers in helping women to overcome body dissatisfaction and develop positive body esteem. Presented at Dialogue with the Body in Clinical Practice: The 4th Critical Multicultural Counselling and Psychotherapy Conference. OISE/UT, Toronto, ON.

My first Mother's Day

So I had a lovely first Mother's Day. Mark and Ben both gave me lovely cards, beautiful flowers, and breakfast in bed. Plus I got a substantial break from my mothering duties for a good chunk of the weekend. All in all, quite wonderful.

The weird thing though, was being in the malls this week and seeing all the Mother's Day stuff and thinking that I'm the one that's supposed to like these things. Boxed sets of bath gels and powders, low quality diamond jewelry, gift certificates for manicures. All I could think was "Gak, there's few things I want less than that!" Plus, some of the advertising pissed me off. There was one ad that read "For my mother, your selflessness is inspiring." Um what? I don't want my son to see me as selfless or to emulate selflessness. I want him to see my as self-ful, someone who was able to care for others and herself, not instead of herself. I want him to see me as someone with a strong sense of self, not a self-sacrificing, identity-less mother.

But I will take the pretty flowers.

Oh my god, I never blog anymore. It's partly laziness and partly the lack of anything compelling happening to me or passing through my brain. Ben and I spend are days together, some suck, some are awesome but they're hard to write about. There are many funny moments, like when Ben tries to eat my chin. He wraps his mouth around it, creates a seal and then bites down as hard as he can with his little gum ridges. And it's hard, believe me. And there's his new habit of pushing against us over and over in a rocking motion with his mouth wide open - we think it's a gesture of happiness and affection but we're not sure. And there's the incredible, incredible amount of drool (no, he's not teething, just DROOLING). Baby drool is a substance all to itself, slimy and viscous and mixed with regurgitated milk to give it a stretchy but milky consistency. Divine.

And my brain is jelly. I'm trying to get on the dissertation train but the most intellectually robust thing I've said lately is, "That's right Ben, get those fartsies out." I don't think they'll give me a degree for that. lol

But that said, life is pretty good these days. The weather is awesome. We go for walks and lounge in the backyard. We even braved the streetcar and went shopping along Queen St. W. the other day. Very big deal for me as I've been afraid of the stroller/streetcar sitch for a while. And Ben is just so cute these days. He loves us and reaches out for us and interacts and loves to roughhouse. It's just awesome. But hard to blog about. You just kind of have to see it.

Nothing to report

So it's been forever since I've blogged but I've just been feeling overwhelmed. Ben's been in a bit of a crank lately and has had low fevers and runny nose on and off the last two weeks. We were in the hospital drop-in on the weekend and are off to our own doctor in a couple of days. It's very stressful trying to stay on top of all the various things that could be impacting him and make this world as Ben-friendly as possible. I've been up to my eyes in researching safe vs. dangerous plastics, the benefits and dangers of too dirty a home and too clean a home, which moisturizers and shampoos to use, which foods to eat, how to sleep, when to sleep, on and on and on. Every time I get one thing figured out, a whole new thing I've never thought of before crops up. But he is healthy and still a pretty happy guy, occasional crank aside so we must be doing something right. Or he's just awesome and able to overcome our ineptitude!



Anyway, here's a recent pic. I'll try to write something more chipper soon.

My commentary on the commentary on Alanis's commentary

So the Alanis parody of My Humps is everywhere (if you haven’t seen it, it’s here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g). And it is very very funny. I love Alanis. I dug her since Jagged Little Pill came out, even though at times she’s been a bit of a closet love of mine. But this makes me love her even more. That said, the funniest thing is not the video but the thousands of comments attached to it. I’ve posted a few of my favourites below (all of them are as they appeared, enjoy the spelling and grammar).

First we have the people who love Fergie and/or don’t understand the concept of a parody. Interestingly, many of these people posted over and over again (move on people, move on).

agcc90 (5 hours ago)
SHIT SHIT SHITplease dont hear this video watch my humps(BEP), london bridge, fergalicious, glamorous, big girls dont cryPLEASEEE

movkit (6 hours ago)
It's funny because Alanis is a horse faced fugly woman with no body to speak of. She is fugly and old. Her voice is like a nasal sounding wanna be folk singer.She tried to be the sexy artist and didn't sell.Fergie has what she wants - A career and attention, an a man. Alanis is a jealous bitter ugly old hag whose career is over after she can't be sexy when she did try it. Loser.


Then there are those who hate the video because it fails to reach their standards of obscurity.

mremeet (6 hours ago)
Lets face it people, musisians are flaky self aborbed pretencious people i dont enjoy either styles fergies is crap but alongface moreorless is equally self absorbed in an artsy fartsy depressing kind of way if i want to listen to good music i search for obscurity because most musicians that become really famous are generic watered down music for everyone bands which usaully equates to crap

The people who like Alanis but seemed to have missed the point.

luve4 (2 hours ago)
oh my god!!!Alanis has hit bottom...She's copying Fergie so someone will notice that she exists...I want the "You Oughta know age back..Poor Alanisp.s. i do agree that this video i far from funny[sorry]

yankeesgrl2452 (2 hours ago)
this is INCREDIBLE.the song sounds extremely depresssing but then the video is like..grinding and sex so its a little weird but i love it haha

Those who love the video and have offered us their analysis of its meaning and purpose.

aerialrose (2 hours ago)
Haha! Thank you for pointing out the assinine lyrics and tearing up the suburban wanna-be ghetto "Bootylicious" crowd. Shallow, meaningless, diva bubble gum pop has been a plague on this nation's radios for far too long. Thank you for exposing the useless, brainless bimbos for what they are. How about we get the DJs to start playing some real music, with lyrical depth and harmony now? Something that would transcend sell-out sex/glitter/bling-bling marketing? You have my support. =)

kitkatmonk (1 hour ago)
only a Canadian could see through the morass of endemic American consumerism and make it funny.... brilliant and sad at the same time.

GhuqueYou (6 hours ago)
This just couldn't be any more f'ing great. It is so fantastic to see someone ripping that ridiculous f'ing song and those ridiculous people who insist on pushing such crap on the world. I just can't believe the wanton stupidity in people who swallow that Fergie-esque shite.

Finally, there are those who love George Bush

fruticetum (2 days ago)
I think George Bush is probably one of the top five presidents. He has won two wars, he's erased the Clinton deficit, and nominated excellent conservative Supreme Court Justices. He's bringing democracy to Iraq, and has held to his principles regardless of political ramifications. That spells 'leader' to me.

Mmmm.... cake...

So a friend sent me a little internet quiz, "What kind of cake are you?" (http://www.blogthings.com/whatkindofcakeareyouquiz)and it turns out, I'm a marble cake:


***You Are a Marble Cake***

Eclectic, inventive, and peaceful.
You are never willing to accept what's "normal." You live to push the envelope.
You find it hard to make up your mind. You prefer to have everything you want, right away

This pleases me for two reasons - one I like the description. It does sound a lot like me, except for maybe the part about pushing the envelope. I'm not that much of a risk taker. But everything else is me, especially prefering to have everything I want, right away!

The other thing that pleases me about this is that marble cake is my favourite cake! Especially marble cake with chocolate frosting. Mmmm.... frosting....

Crazy days

So I've been neglected my blog because I have become obsessed with facebook. I've been finding all these pages of people from high school and enjoying seeing how they're doing. Even though I myself have a baby, somehow it seems weird to see them with babies. Oh, how these things suck up my time.

In other news, things have been exciting with Ben. We've started him on solids. He's had squash, sweet potatos, peas, carrots, and pears. Plus cereal - rice, barley, and oats. So far he's been really enjoying it, though strangely the carrots weren't a hit.




The other big thing is that we've taken Ben out of the swing. He's been sleeping in it for naps and overnight since he's reflux started in December. Last night, we put him to bed in his crib for the first time. And he wasn't too happy about it. We both cried a lot and then he spent half the night with me and half the night in the crib. Ah well, it's a process!