Man, I wish she'd stop pounding me on my back!

It's been a busy couple of days for Margaret. First, she writes her first blog post, then she gets her first night time full bottle feed and she even got to go to the grocery store today. Wow!

Actually, the bottle feed went pretty well. Sam fed at about 1:50 AM last night so Margaret didn't wake up until past five. As soon as Margaret started grumbling, I got up and changed her diaper. Then, with my super speed, I dashed to the kitchen and grabbed my pre-prepared 3 oz bottle and some hot water in a little bowl to take the chill off her meal.

Quickly back to bed, I managed to get her in my lap before her crying got too frantic. Insert nipple into mouth and she started sucking like a champ!

Now, a couple of observations about the evening. First, Sarah, not realizing the point of me bottle feeding, I suppose, woke up with me and offered to help me with every step. Finally, I had to tell her to let me do my job and that she should just go to sleep.

Second, feeding from a bottle introduces so much more gas than I would have thought. I tried to be vigilant about keeping the nipple full so she didn't suck down gas, but even then, every quarter of the bottle or so, I'd burp her and she never failed to disappoint with at least one nice, loud belch.

Third, I don't know if this is just me imagining things or not, but bottle feeding allows the baby to feed so fast that, combined with all the air she seems to be taking in, she almost balloons. As she really started in on the bottle, she started letting out this long, slow fart that lasted a good five seconds. It felt like the air was being forced out by her expanding stomach. Sam thought that was interesting too.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Besides the gas issues, the only real thing I'm worried about is that she's going to like the ease of bottles too much and not want the breast. However, SAM says that as the masters of her food supply, we hold the ultimate trump card.


All dressed up, no energy to go

Anyways, that really was the high drama of the last twenty four hours. Today has been rather uneventful. We did go out to the grocery store with the little one and she, of course, stayed asleep in the Baby Bjorn the whole time. Of course, as soon as she got home, she wouldn't stop screaming.

SAM had stayed out to pick up a few extra items so I gave her another 1.5 oz before SAM came home and finished her off.


A bottle? Let me consider that.

Margaret is becoming ever more alert and present, it seems. It's been enormously gratifying to watch this progress. More and more, you realize there's a person in there and sometimes, it really seems like she's watching, absorbing and maybe even has a secret or two.

I love it.


There's definitely someone in there

My side. Finally.

Hi, I'm Margaret. This is me.



There's been a lot of hoopla over the past few days and a lot of doting and oohing and aahing. That part's great. But there's been a bit of, ahem, let's call it, one sided reporting coming from my handlers. In front of me, they refer to themselves in the third person as "Mommy" and "Daddy." You may know them as SAM and John.

Grownups. Go figure.

I'm not saying they're not great parents. I mean, they're really nice and I love them and all. But they're just so into the whole "new parents" thing. I mean, I'm new to this too, but you don't see me acting all self-congratulatory and making top ten lists.

As you can see, Mommy and Daddy like to wrap me up like a Burrito Supreme when I'm not on the breast (which, admittedly, isn't that often). I can't say that it's uncomfortable, because I sleep just fine when I'm like this. But it sure doesn't let me do things I sometimes like to do like chew on my fists, throw my arms up above my head or use my razor nails on Daddy's chest and arms.

Speaking of Burrito Supreme's, can't wait until I can borrow the car to go out for those at 10:00 PM on my own. Beats having to scream for food until Mommy wakes up.



One thing that Mom and Dad like to do is hold me in their laps and make eyes at me like we're having some deep conversation. I'm okay with this as long as it doesn't interfere with my feeding. I'm not sure what they think I'm looking at, though. My vision is still pretty blurry. Usually, I'm just trying to figure out if it's daytime or night time and planning my next meal.

It makes them happy, though, so I put up with it.



Lately, though, I think I've been having a growth spurt because I've been really hungry. I fed for forty five minutes straight on one breast tonight and still had to eat off of another one. So you can imagine, when Daddy tried to have one of his long, smiley half singing conversations with me tonight, I let my opinion be known.



That's a yawn. He didn't get it. Typical. Mommy had my back, though, and eventually had to let him know. She said, "mind if I feed our baby now?"

On the whole, though, things have been pretty good. The food is great and they let me sleep whenever I want. The diaper changes are pretty regular and even the clothes aren't half bad. I was really worried about that while I was on the "inside."

They must have family and friends with good taste.

To set the record straight, however, there are a couple of things that, in the light of negative coverage about certain accidents regarding poop and what are entirely Daddy's own hangups about poop, have gotten missed.

First, I'm now able to lift my head up while over Mommy or Daddy's shoulder to burp. I can also do it while they hold me straight up sometimes. I can't do it for long, but I can do it. I think that's pretty cool.

I can hold my head up. Does that get coverage? No. What does? Poop.

Also, last night, I slept pretty well and only woke up a couple of times. This is good because it lets mommy and daddy get more sleep too. Don't let them tell you I never did anything for them.

Finally, I've been listening in on their conversation and I think a couple of things are coming up. First, I think Daddy is going to try to take over the 3:00 AM feeding tonight with a bottle so that Mom can sleep a bit more. I haven't minded the bottle so far so we'll see how it goes. He better not screw this one up.

Second, I've heard Mommy talking with Daddy, lots of other grownups and looking on the Internet. She thinks that maybe what's causing her breasts to hurt might be the latch. She told Daddy that she's going to try a couple of different methods over the next few days on that too.

So things are moving along at our end of the world. From now on, I might be checking in, occasionally, on the blog just to keep the grownups honest.

Whew. That was a long post for a first effort. I'm tired. You try putting on a 16% of your bodyweight in two and a half weeks. It ain't easy.

Peace out.

M

Is it real, or is it Memorex?

Why babies are like very old people:

1) Their faces are wrinkly and full of character.
2) Conversations inevitably seem to come around to center on their digestive systems.
3) They dribble whatever they're eating on their chins.
4) They take long naps during the day and don't sleep at night.
5) They want what they want when they want it and won't put up with any of your BS.
6) They break wind loudly and don't care where they do it or who hears them doing it.



Well, here we are. Another day, another feeding. Or eight.

The good news is that after lunch out and a walk in Victoria Park, we successfully managed bottle feeding again today. We wanted to use up some old breast milk and give Sarah a bit of a break and Margaret sucked down an ounce of expressed breast milk faster than you can say, "nipple confusion, my behind!"

Then, not having had enough, she promptly went for another breast and a half before falling into slumber.

We consider this to be an auspicious start and hope that she continues to be able to switch between bottles and the real thing as easily. This could revolutionize our time usage and gives us the option of leaving Margaret at home with our helper. Things are very exciting these days.

Also, thanks so much to those of you who emailed and called with advice and empathy about the last post. We've got some things to try now and some people to talk to and will keep you all updated on how it goes.

Finally, we measured her today with our own tape measure. Head to heels she measures 53 cm / 20.9 inches. Remember, she started at 50 cm. Not sure how accurate that initial measurement (or ours) was, but if she really grew 3 cm / 1.2 inches in two and a half weeks we're mightily impressed. Somehow, that doesn't seem right, but we'll take it.

3.49 Kilos / 7.69 pounds

She's pumped up!

3.49 Kilos / 7.69 lbs. That's her weight when Sarah went in and had her weighed today. That's a full 480 grams / 1.06 lbs more than when she was born. Our little Margaret is growing!

One pound may not seem like much, but we've been noticing it. We've also been noticing the increasing strength in her legs and her body as every day, her wiggling and kicking seems stronger than the last.

This makes bath time increasingly precarious and so we may move her to the tub sooner rather than later.

The increased strength also reflects in her ability to get out of her swaddling.


Practicing her feminine charms

Her weight and her strength aren't the only things changing, however. We're finding increased difficulty, now, with her settling at times. She seems to like to be awake in the late evenings now and frequently will want to be on the breast though she seems not to be hungry. However, once taken off, she stays awake and will frequently demand attention either in the form of snuggling or feeding / snacking.

I can't say that we have a solution to this at this time other than waiting for her to get tired. Our literature seems to indicate that it is still early to be putting her on a feeding schedule and that "training" the baby should wait until two months. Of course, it was suggested to Sarah in her mother and baby group today that she might want to start training Margaret now. All the competing wisdom is sometimes difficult to make sense of.


Making eyes at Mommy

Breast feeding is also now quite painful for SAM and we're not sure what to do about that either. All the advice, professional and otherwise, seems to indicate that SAM's technique is fine. There's no elongation of her nipple upon Margaret releasing and the latch seems secure. It's just that Sarah's breasts seem to hurt her quite a lot for the first six or seven sucks and then upon let-down. They even hurt her when she has the let down from when she hears Margaret crying.

For us, this is the greatest challenge. I think that we can handle the difficulty settling, but persistent pain is something that, after awhile, just eats away at your consciousness. She's trying lanolin for the surface pain, but we're going to have to figure out something for the let-down pain.


Sharing a laugh between women

Bathing is increasingly a joy for us (and hopefully for her). The only issue is that it's much harder than we thought to get at all the neck cheese. For the past couple of nights now, we've had to go back with a wet wipe after her bath in order to get some of the stinky stuff that we missed in the first go round. we're going to have to work on this as well.


Slightly anxious about her bath today

Now that we've settled down a bit after the first two weeks, we really are facing new challenges. I'm not sure what we would have expected, but it's time for us to buckle down and tackle these new issues.

We've had it lucky so far and I think it only fair that we run into some challenges now as the beginning seemed too good to be true. SAM said it tonight after taking stock of these new challenges. "We're really parents of a newborn now."


Getting nice and clean!

Sleepy time

One last post of Ubi2 taken yesterday.

Sometimes, she takes care of mommy, too.

Oh, and Ubi2 is just our name for the bear. I think that Margaret will have to give it her real name when she is old enough.

Growing, growing, growing

"Cherubic" comes to mind

Margaret seems to be sleeping longer and longer now - during the day. She was essentially asleep today from about 2:30 - 9:00 PM with only three short, "one breast" feeds after which she immediately fell back asleep.

We're wondering if this is a growth spurt.

We're also wondering if this means we're in for a long night tonight.

The next few shots were taken tonight after her bath. She's taken to bathing relatively well, now. She only infrequently complains about being bathed and seems to receive it with patience and calm.

During bath time, it's also really clear how much she's grown. She is taking up more and more of the sink each day and I'm tempted in the next week to just move to the tub. It wastes more water, but she'll have more room to spread out.

Another indicator of size is how much space she's taking up in the co-sleeper / crib. When Margaret first came home, we put down a burp cloth in the exact midpoint of the crib's length in order to absorb any spit-up from when Margaret is asleep. This placement allowed us to put her down pointing either direction to avoid plagiocephaly. We are now close to the point where this will no longer work because she has grown so much and her mouth is now barely on the edge of the cloth when you put her down.

While we love that she is growing and developing, I feel like we barely have time to get used to her today and she's already onto tomorrow. She's getting heavier in our hands and it only serves to highlight to me how soon the day will come when I won't be able to hold her in one arm (or at all) anymore.

Heady days. It's too bad we can't hold onto them.



"C'mon, dad. Swear I'll have the car back by 6."


Someone doesn't like being manhandled


My favorite shot of the day

Bottle Feeding!

Today, just now, I fed Margaret her first half ounce of expressed breast milk. I'm very excited.

Sarah went out to the grocery store and little M started crying inconsolably. We had some expressed milk in the fridge and everything was sterilized so I decided to give it a try.

I warmed up the milk in a bowl of hot water got Margaret all in position and let her try the nipple on for size.

It went alright. Sarah came home partway through and it definitely seems like she does better with the actual breast, but she did manage to suck down about 1/2 an ounce which is a nice start, I think.

It was great to be able to provide for Margaret in this way as, until now, for me, it felt like I was unable to provide for one of the most basic and most important of her needs. As Margaret sucked on the bottle being provided by me, I felt really happy and fulfilled - like it feels when you've just made a person you care for very happy.

While I think that it's still probably best for SAM to feed direct to M, I feel so glad to know that we now have another option and that when the baby is hungry, that there is something that I can do. This also has implications on Sarah's sleep patterns as well and I'm looking forward to work out ways in which this can improve our time usage.

2 Weeks + 1 Day

Baffling questions beyond my mental capacity:

1) How to reassemble a breastfeeding shirt once it's come out of the dryer
2) Where do babies store all that milk?
3) Where do babies store all that poop? (I understand about conservation of matter, but this is more an issue of babies seeming to be bigger on the inside than the outside)
4) In which pocket of the diaper bag is the insert any item?


"Hi there!" This morning in mommy's lap.

Little Margaret seems to be growing so darn fast we can hardly keep up. Starting the day before yesterday, her vision seems to have crossed some threshold. She now seems to be able to track things with her eyes and so it makes for some very cool moments where we are really beginning to feel like we can communicate with her and she can really see us.

We also get occasional flashes of a smile. While we know that it's most likely gas, it's still awe inspiring to catch one of her rare smiles and get a glimpse of what the future will hold more of.

It's too bad my mom went home yesterday, otherwise she would have been able to see all of those things. :(

Margaret continues to gain weight as well. In many of her photos (and in real life), she is looking more and more jowly which, I suppose is a good thing. Margaret continues to eat like a fiend and Sarah continues to supply milk like a champ. At times, this keeps Sarah a bit tied down and so is frustrating, but we can't seem to argue with the fact that good nutrition and rapidly growing baby is a good thing.

We're starting to pump a bit now and set it aside, so in the coming days we should be able to begin distributing feeding between the two of us so Sarah isn't the only one able to take on that task.


Also today. Fun and funny moments are increasing in frequency.

As I mentioned, because of how much Margaret wants to feed, Sarah has been really tired. However, we've been lucky to have a helpful figure around the house to help us watch over Margaret and change her when we need to rest, or take a shower, or eat.

We are all so lucky to have Ubi2.

Below, some photos taken while Sarah was in the shower today.


Ubi2 can't believe how BIG Margaret has gotten


Margaret always loves to snuggle in Ubi2's lap


Ubi2 checks on her and pats her back to calm her


Checking a wet diaper


Ready to change her!

Giving thanks for an uneventful Thanksgiving

Last night (Thurs) pre-bath

It's American Thanksgiving and Sarah, Margaret and I celebrated our first major holiday as a family. We had roast chicken with stuffing and it was good!


Bathtime with Daddy! She LOVES being the princess in her throne.

Last night was also the very first time Margaret took a bath with daddy! It was really fun, and Margaret seemed to love it. She was awake through the whole process but very calm and quiet. Her eyes were open for most of it and as you can see from the photo, seemed to relish being seated on her throne in the nice, warm water.


Nipple confusion

Funny thing, here. After the bath, we hung out in bed with Margaret on my chest. After a while, she got a bit hungry and decided to try daddy's nipple for a feed. The thing is that she completely did this on her own. She managed to shimmy her way from the center of my chest to get a mouth over a nipple and tried to latch. I'm not sure how she 'knew' what to do and where to go for. I mean, it's not like I smell like milk.


Tired

Finally, after her last evening feed, she was completely sacked out. Included for the comedy value.

It's Official!

Taken today, day 11 at 9:40 PM

Woohoo! It's official. What you didn't know before was that the baby we were all calling Margaret, actually, officially, hadn't been named yet. That all changed today when I went to the Birth Registry and gave the official government functionary behind the desk a name. Two, actually. Her Chinese and English ones. There is now, according to the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region an actual human being on record named Margaret McLean Tsien. Very cool. I couldn't stop staring at the official birth certificate once I had it in my hot little hands.

Now, it's to get her passport and US documentation taken care of. What you see above is a reject from her passport photo shoot.

Over the next couple of weeks, we'll be getting her US and Hong Kong passport applications in. Yes, you heard right. Apparently, because of the facts surrounding my birth, Margaret is actually eligible to have "Right of Abode" here in Hong Kong, and since both HK and the US allow dual citizenship, we're going to go ahead and do it.

I feel like it's kind of a cool way to reflect how our family is both East and West.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

In other news, I've discovered that in some moments, parenting a newborn resembles nothing less than stark insanity. A couple of nights ago, Margaret had an extremely loud poop. Upon changing, both SAM and I were so impressed at the sheer volume of the poop (I mean, the diaper was just completely FULL) that we were beside ourselves with genuine, honest to goodness, pride!

I think that with most sane people, it would have ended there. However, both of us were thinking that this was such a momentous occasion that we should have a record. Feeling a photo would be too, well, scatological, we simultaneously suggested to break out the postal scale and get some actual numbers instead. As if weighing a poopy diaper would be somehow more mature and scientific than simply posting a photo of excrement.



Here you see the proof that we're off our rockers. It weighed 147 grams / 5.1 Ounces. An empty diaper weighs 19 grams / 0.6 Ounces. We finally abandoned the exercise when I realized two things - one, that as she grows older, the diapers will only get heavier and most importantly, two, that to truly verify that this was a mondo poop would require me measuring previously soiled diapers.

For some reason, at that point, I actually considered it and dismissed the idea not because it was completely insane, but because I was too tired and there weren't enough diapers anyway to get a decently low margin of error (t-test aside).

Even with the descent into madness, however, such sweet madness it is.

Margaret day to day

Margaret continues to grow and change on an almost daily basis. Even in photos, we feel like she looks different now from the ones taken at her birth. In person, the changes are even more obvious.

Whereas before, she either had her "on" mode (screaming), or off and quiet, she's now expanded her vocal repertoire to include multiple volume levels and several kinds of birdlike chirps, coos and cute little grunts. We're very proud.

Also, lately, when hungry, she's taken to feeding in a manner that we like to call, "Hyper-Feedilating" because it sounds like she's hyperventilating. The best way to describe what happens is that she tries to suck so fast and so hard that she makes grunting/squeaking noises like an old rusty bucket being lowered into an open well. Sometimes she chokes on the milk as it comes out. I've got video - one of these days, I'll post it. It's actually quite funny.

One thing that we were concerned about is that her skin has been peeling. Though we understand now that it is normal (confirming with our friends Lindsay and Graham who have one 3 days older than Margaret, my mom and my aunt who is a physician), it still hurts us to look at poor little Margaret's peeling, flaking, scaly skin. At first we thought we were doing something wrong during bathing or that maybe we didn't realize that babies needed moisturizing. But now we're just waiting it out.


Taken yesterday morning

These days of our lives

Bouts of craziness aside, the past couple of days have been busy ones full of family, friends and visitors. Margaret is becoming quite the social butterfly, entertaining all of these guests! Besides my aunt, and several of of my mom's friends, my Godparents came with their son, Howard. It was great having them here in our home to visit Margaret and it was incredibly sweet of them to stop in on the way from the airport to a wedding reception. We are honored.

We've been managing to make small but new adjustments that keep us functional. We've learned how to get work done with Margaret in our laps. Sam has learned how to perform all manner of tasks while feeding. Bathing has improved with her not screaming out her lungs every time she hits the water.



Life is great and every day full of more discoveries and happinesses than the last. As we pick ourselves up from the freight train that was giving birth, we're really starting to discover so many more joys in having Margaret than we could have imagined.

We're looking forward to all the tomorrows ahead of us.

I'll keep you posted.

Grandma!

It's been great having my mom here to spend time with us, supervise post-pregnancy meal production and to bond with Margaret. Sarah had her first couple doses of recovery herbs today and she was very brave in swallowing the rather medicinal tasting brew. Of course, she was able to do the induction herbs so I had no reason to suspect this would go any differently.

You can see from some of the photos that Margaret's hair is starting to get a bit long. It's growing a bit over her ears now. Thankfully, her back hair isn't exhibiting similar growth. In looking at her hair, it's amazing to think about how much she has changed in just the 9 days she's been out in the world.

The longer she's out, the harder it is to imagine life without her and what it was even like before her. As Sarah says, "I can't believe she was once inside of me."

I'm feeling pretty clobbered today so tonight's post will be relatively short and mostly just be a few photos.


婆婆 loves Margaret!


And Margaret loves 婆婆 right back


The first use of the Baby Bjorn on Saturday night for dinner with the family


Taken last night and included just because I love the hair

More next time...

Random free association

One of those things that's hysterical in your head during the 4:00 AM diaper change

My baby got sauce
Your baby ain't sweet like mine
She got sauce
Your baby ain't sweet like mine
She got sauce...
She ain't just sweet
- G. Love and Special Sauce

Busy, busy, busy as bees

Taken tonight before bedtime

Thank you, thank you, thank you

First, thanks to the readership for all the advice that has been pouring in on how to avoid diaper blowouts. The most practical has come from my sister Joan and our friends Beth and Erika who all told us to double check that the frilly elastic seal on the diaper's legs are properly sealed around Margaret's legs. We have been doing so and have so far been achieving good results.

My favorite piece of advice, however, comes from our friend Mushtaq, who wrote, "...keep your mouth closed while you change the diaper. Trust me."

It has been said that the sagest wisdom is that which has been hardest won. This man truly took one for the team.

Shades of the Merlion

From the, "different but the same" problem department comes our experience from last night. Margaret had an especially difficult night last night and spent the hours from about midnight to 4:00 AM completely awake. We tried everything and went through three changes of clothing, several diaper changes, many feedings, etc to get her calm (we did have one pee leak and more than one soaking spit-up).

At around 2:30 AM, I'm in the living room trying to get Margaret to settle and have her sitting/laying in my lap, facing me with her head in my hand. Then, in something straight out of "The Fly," a powerful jet of spit-up comes flying full force out of her mouth, against the force of gravity, about a foot and a half, to splatter directly onto my chest. The impact was impressive and the stream mind-bogglingly well directed and coherent, like something out of the business end of a super-soaker. I was incredibly impressed at the amount of pressure that must build up within her to create these geysers from both ends of her body. We're now burping after meals with new vigor.

The Weekend

These past few days have been busy in a fun way with us receiving our first visitors - our friends Molly and Sylvia who both came on Friday afternoon after school.

Then yesterday evening, my mom, sister Joy and her family came over for a visit. Everyone was fawning over Margaret so much that I was worried that she might get a big head!


Joy, George et al plus Margaret


The kids plus Margaret

The kids were great with Margaret with each taking turns and wanting to help in every way possible. Everyone was gentle and loving and Margaret is lucky to have such wonderful cousins! Sarah even tells me that Samantha was especially helpful. After watching just one diaper change, she assisted Sam in the next one by preparing the diaper, wipe and all else perfectly without prompting.



This morning, my mother came over early to help us take care of Margaret and for a nice visit where she helped prepare SAM's lunch and snack. These days have been busy and it is a great help to have family nearby who are so loving and wanting to help. Tomorrow, mom comes over again to help prepare the Chinese herbs for Sarah's post-pregnancy recovery. I am super glad for this because I have no clue how that will work.



In the afternoon, after my mom left, Lindsay and Graham came over with Fred and we all six hung out and enjoyed an early dinner. There were cookies and caramel ribbon brownies but the sweetest two were new fast friends Fred and Margaret. Here you see a photo of the two babies born only three days apart.

Now, as I write, Sarah is asleep in bed and Margaret is swaddled and asleep in my lap. A bundle of joy and warmth if ever there was one.

It's a quiet end to a busy day. It is these times to myself, with my loves nearby when I can sit and be grateful for all the incredibly wonderful things that have come my way.

Truly, insanely, great.

Birth Day presents from Grandpa

A package arrived in the mail today from Grandpa Jack (so named until he finalizes his "official" grandpa name). The card itself was gift enough, and I was in tears before I got to the second paragraph. Enclosed in the package were three special gifts, two for Margaret and one for Mom.

Margaret's first gift is the "traditional McLean girl birth day present":



Those of you close to the McLean family know that my dad made a tradition of giving each of his daughters a teddy bear on the occasion of her birth. Ubi and I are featured below:



This tradition has now officially been extended to the grandbabies. These teddy bears continued to be part of our lives as we grew up. When I first saw the Carter's snap-front newborn t-shirts for Margaret, my first thought was that I remembered dressing Ubi in those after Sylvia grew out of them. Here are the three McLean girls with their birth day bears, Ubi in aforementioned t-shirt and diaper:



For the second gift I can only quote Dad's card. As a preface, Dad was in New Mexico when Margaret was born, celebrating the Marine Corps birthday in an annual reunion with members of Charlie Company, his company from Vietnam. For more about the characters mentioned, you'll have to read his book. The card reads:

"The quilt was made by the wife of one of my Charlie Company buddies & was raffled off at our banquet last Saturday night. 11/10/2007 was also the 232nd birthday of the USMC - hence, a birthday quilt and, as so woven, a Charlie 1/4 quilt as well.

"Terry Tillery won the Raffle.

"He immediately gave the quilt to Bill Negron, the Skipper. 11/10/07 was his 71st birthday.

"He subsequently presented to me to present to Margaret on her birth day."





We are incredibly moved by the generosity and love of so many people that this gift represents. My hope is that this quilt in some small way holds a promise for the future. May Margaret grow up in a world where the men and women of the United States Marine Corps are not sent into battles such that her grandfather and godfather have seen. With every generation comes the hope for peace. As a teacher, and now a parent, I find myself increasingly reflecting on the question of what can I do to make this hope a reality. What will it take to raise even one peace maker? Can we, collectively, train an entire generation?