Joe Shlabotnik Is My Hero
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Below are the 50 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Peter, Not Joe" journal:[<< Previous 50 entries]
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02:47 pm
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Old Greek Dress
As is the tradition, we spent the Fourth of July weekend up at Sue's grandmother's cottage on the ocean in Maine. It's much the same every year, only this time Violet was able walk around and play in the cold, cold water. She was initially shocked at just how cold the ocean was, but quickly warmed up to it (ha!), and certainly outlasted our tolerance to it. Funny how a cold ocean doesn't seem to bother kids as much as it does adults. Even when it was foggy and 55 degrees (and that was probably warmer than the water temperature), there were children brave and foolhardy enough to splash around without wetsuits. I got extra chills just looking at them.
Sue's grandmother had a surprise for us. She pulled out a dress that she bought in Greece when Sue was a baby, and dug out a photograph of Sue wearing it in front of the cottage. So of course we had to re-create the photo with Violet (shown here). We're keeping the dress in case the cottage is still in the family when we have a granddaughter. Check back in thirty years.
(For now, here are more photos of our trip to Maine this year.)
Tags: maine, vacation, violet
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06:00 pm
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05:48 pm
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04:30 pm
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Father's Day
What a nice Father's Day present - Violet finally took some steps today! She's been *so close* for over a month now - walking holding on to the furniture or our hand, even taking one tentative step here and there - but we were beginning to think she wouldn't be walking on her own until the fall. It might still be a while before she'll walk without us goading her on. But that's okay; now that we know she *can* walk, we can relax and let her crawl around some more so she's easier to keep track of.
Tags: video, violet
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01:03 am
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01:07 am
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01:03 am
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09:53 pm
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The Name Game
The Social Security Administration has just released their list of the most popular baby names in 2008:
http://www.socialsecurity.gov/OACT/babynames/
Violet has gotten more popular in recent years, ranked the 184th most popular girls' name in the U.S. in 2008, up from #229 in 2007. And that's up from total oblivion in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, when it almost never even made the top 1000; 1999 was the first time it cracked the top 900 since 1968. Which explains why I've never met anyone named Violet before. It's the name's highest rank since 1937, but still below its peak popularity in 1919 (when it was #74).
At the rate the name is gaining in popularity, it could be a top 20 name by the time Violet gets to elementary school. Which is kind of what we were trying to avoid - we were looking for something classic, not too crazy, but not too popular. Perhaps we're bigger trendsetters than we had thought.
A name that might better fit that bill these days is Susan. Poor Susan. The second-most popular girls' name back in 1957 and 1958, it was still #24 the year my wife was born, but dropped out of the top 100 in 1985. And now? It's a pitiful #712. What the heck is wrong with Susan? Does it deserve to be less popular than Shyanne, Destinee, Yaretzi, Paisley, and Payton? (Payton? Who names a girl Payton?)
As for Peter, it's a semi-respectable #183 for boys, not nearly as popular as it used to be, but not dropping off into oblivion. Yet.
(PS - Violet is two places below Brooklynn. Brooklynn? Come on people, even with one n that's just... I mean... Brooklynn? Really?)
Tags: violet
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01:05 am
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05:20 pm
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Sporks!
Everybody hates sporks.
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03:07 pm
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Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream
Two strangest dreams, actually. In one, Mario Cuomo was giving a speech in my hotel room (at some fancy resort - we were there with friends). He brought his own lectern and everything. I got annoyed with his being there and we got into a big shouting match. It wasn't about policy; I just wanted him to go. I was quite riled up. I think I managed to get to the steam room eventually, but that's less strange.
In the other, we were hosting a dinner party (it wasn't our house, but it was - you know how dreams are), when Sue brought out a big box of pregnancy test sticks. All the women (and one guy - to be funny, I guess) took the test and everyone announced that they weren't pregnant. (Nobody had left the table, but the tests were taken non-explicitly and without peeing - again, you know how dreams are.)
I wonder what babies dream about. Nothing makes sense to a baby; do their dreams make even less sense than that?
Tags: random
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01:03 am
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02:12 pm
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Professional Photographer
I'm now a professional photographer!
Technically speaking, that is. I just received a check from Langenscheidt Publishing, who is using my photo on the cover of their latest Syracuse street map! I've had lots of people use my photos on their blogs, I've had one used in a small magazine, but this is the first photo I've ever gotten money for. And I like it. (Langenscheidt is much nicer than other companies I know.)
Now if I could find someone to pay me for every photo I take, I could retire comfortably. Any takers?
Tags: random
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06:06 pm
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Ice Ice Baby
Next time I go ice skating, remind me to never accidentally fall through the ice.
One of the fun things we did while we were up in Tremblant (photos here) was go to the beautiful Scandinavian Spa for an afternoon. It's a complex of outdoor hot tubs and cold tubs, and indoor steam rooms, saunas, and warm "relaxation rooms", with full spa services offered if you're in the mood (we both got massages - my second one ever). The idea is to alternate between warm places and cold places, for an authentic Scandinavian experience. It's supposed to be good for you, they say, and it's definitely fun.
If the 57-degree plunge pool or waterfall isn't enough for you, there's the option to take a dip in a hole cut in the ice in the Diable River. And how often do we get the chance to do that? We just had to give it a try. After all, it was by far the warmest day of our vacation (a balmy 25 degrees - that's Fahrenheit, my foreign friends).
Well, getting in is surprisingly easy. By the time I was up to my waist, though, my feet were telling me to get out. Very insistently. The bigger surprise was then the searing pain about ten seconds after getting out - there were about 30 seconds where I doubted I'd ever be able to stand again.
Yet I survived, and so did Sue. And then I had to do it again because Sue somehow didn't get a good photo of me in the water. And what's the point of doing it if there's no proof? People ask me how Sue can put up with all the photos I take - well, I'm willing to suffer for my photography habit, too!
There was no suffering the rest of the day; if we hadn't had to get back to our hotel to pick up Violet from daycare by 4:30, we could have stayed there warming and chilling (literally and figuratively) all afternoon into the evening. But not in the river again. We got our story and our photos and that's enough.
Tags: vacation
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10:53 pm
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Violet Is One!
It's cliche to say "I can't believe my baby is one year old already!" so I won't. I don't actually feel that way. On the contrary, I'm amazed that she's *only* one - it feels like she's been around forever. Yet paradoxically I'm still surprised that we have a baby at all. Even after a year, it feels normal and not normal at the same time - like we're Violet's parents, but we don't feel like parents. You know what I mean? Other parents of one-year-olds might.
We didn't do anything spectacular for her birthday - my parents came up from Florida, my brother and his family came down from Westchester (twenty minutes away), and our neighbors came from next door. Some cake, some champagne, some presents, and boom - Violet is officially one.
She's pulling up and sitting down, doing some cruising, and loves climbing stairs (but can't come down - fortunately, she's usually good at knowing not to come down). She's not walking or talking yet, but it really seems that could happen any day now.
Last week she went to her first foreign country - we drove to Canada to go skiing at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. It was our first ski trip in two years, and our first with the baby. And it was fantastic. We picked Tremblant mostly because the daycare situation was ideal - our hotel was right at the lifts, and the resort's daycare center was right inside our hotel. Plus with the pedestrian village, it was easy to walk her around at night for dinner and some window shopping. She didn't mind the 5-degree weather at all. Without any wind, it wasn't as bad as it might sound.
Violet loved being in daycare. Perhaps too well - other babies were crying and clinging to their parents; Violet just zoomed right off in the morning with nary a glance back. I guess that's good. She probably picked up a few words of French there, too. Maybe. She didn't seem to understand "ne mange pas!" any more than she does "don't eat that!".
Sue was worried that a two-year hiatus would make her skiing pretty rusty, but we needn't have worried. We got right back into it, and didn't fall once. It hadn't snowed in a long time there, so the trails were quite icy and slick. Which we got used to. At least it's less tiring than pushing through snow (or slush, which was the conditions in the 65-degree weather when we were at Tremblant six years earlier).
It'll be two or three years before Violet is up on skis, so we have time to prepare - as much fun as it will be to ski with her, daycare has got to be easier...
(PS - photos of our ski vacation can be found here and photos of Violet's birthday and other March photos can be found here. As of now, I have tons more photos to upload to each set, so feel free to come back often in the next few weeks...)
Tags: skiing, vacation, violet
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02:26 pm
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50 Things
I've been tagged so many times in that "25 Things About You" Facebook meme that I decided I'd put twice the effort into it. So here goes:
1) I don't remember what my earliest memory is.
2) I didn't get off the bus after my first day of kindergarten. I thought the bus driver would drop me off in front of my house. When I was the last kid left on the bus, he had to take me back to the corner where I was supposed to get off, and my mother was still patiently waiting for the bus to come back.
3) I don't think my mom was too worried; she saw me wave to her when I didn't get off the bus the first time.
4) I moved halfway through kindergarten. At my new school, I spent half of my time in a first-grade classroom. When I started first grade, I spent half the day in a second-grade classroom for about a month. Then it was decided to just keep me in second-grade all day.
5) As a result, I graduated from high school before I could drive (3 days shy of my 17th birthday), and from college before I could buy alcohol (13 days shy of my 21st birthday).
6) Also as a result, I lucked out in fourth grade, when our tiny school became so crowded that it was decided that fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders would only go to school for four hours a day, in alternate shifts. That's when I became a "latchkey kid". I did fine; I still think that eight-year-olds are perfectly capable of being left home alone.
7) And while all my classmates are turning 40 this year, I'm not!
8) I wasn't one of the "popular" kids, but I wasn't unpopular, either. I think I was well-liked.
9) I never went through a "girls are icky" phase. I wasn't shy around girls, but I was painfully shy about asking them out. My list of unrequited crushes is painfully long. I went to every junior high school dance, and spent nearly every minute with my back against the wall mustering up the courage to ask some girl to dance, but only ever mustered up the courage once. I think I was too nervous to say anything to her while we danced, and after we danced, too.
10) As far back as I can remember, my younger brother has been as big or bigger than me. I got used to being mistaken for the younger brother myself, though I never much liked it. The only other person I know who had a bigger younger brother growing up is Chris on the T.V. show "Everybody Hates Chris". I feel for him.
11) I get along with my brother - and my parents and in-laws - just fine.
12) I wish my parents hadn't moved to Florida.
13) I like having a very small family. Less drama.
14) I hate bananas. The smell and the taste disgust me. It's probably the only "normal" food I can't abide. (Is Roquefort cheese a "normal" food? I can't abide that, either.)
15) I'm not a very picky eater otherwise. I feel sad for people who are picky eaters. There's too much good food out there that needs trying.
16) I was definitely not good in sports in school, but at various times I was on soccer, baseball, volleyball, and track teams. Track was my best sport; I managed to get a varsity letter in it. I probably could have been even better if I weren't so lazy (see #34 and #35).
17) I got back into running in my 30s. 4-mile to 10K are my favorite distances. I've done one half-marathon, and even though I had a decent time (1:40) and I felt good afterward, I don't quite feel the need to do a full marathon.
18) The only class I got an A+ in in college was Statistics. I don't think you need to know how many B-s and Cs I got.
19) I did get straight As in grad school. I understood the subjects better the second time around. Plus there were fewer distractions.
20) I met Sue in college; I knew pretty soon after meeting her that she was the one I was going to marry. It took a few months for me to convince her of that, though.
21) Sue and I did not live together before getting married. I think we're the only ones. We never even lived in the same state between my graduation from college and our wedding five years later.
22) I've never once tried an illegal drug. I once took a puff of a friend's (tobacco) cigarette as a lark. But I do like my alcohol.
23) I still haven't been to all 50 states. I'm missing Alaska, Oregon, Arizona, New Mexico, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and North Dakota.
24) I don't understand tattoos. Nor do I like them.
25) I'd go back to any part of my life and live it over again. There are some things I'd want to do differently, but it wouldn't be so bad if it were exactly the same.
26) Being a father is much easier than I expected it to be. Perhaps it's because we have a very easy baby. Perhaps that's because we're such good parents.
27) But as much as I love Violet, I don't regret not having a baby sooner.
28) I don't dislike cats and dogs, but I don't want any in my house. If Violet ever wants a pet - or a tattoo - then too bad for her.
29) I wish I were better at foreign languages. I'd love to be fluent in Spanish and French, but that's not going to happen unless I live in a Spanish-speaking or French-speaking city for a year.
30) I don't expect to ever live anywhere but New York, though.
31) If I were to move from New York, I'd miss my friends. But we could still keep in touch on Facebook. What I'd really miss is all the amazing food. You can't Facebook a saag gosht.
32) There are far too many places in the world I haven't been, but so far I'd say the most beautiful city in the world is Venice; my favorite building is the Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone Park; the most breathtaking scenery I've seen is driving north from Jackson Hole, Wyoming into the Grand Tetons; and the best wildlife experience is watching the penguins come home for the night in Wilson's Prom, Australia.
33) I'm a big Peanuts fan. I'm thrilled that they're reprinting every single comic in 25 nice hardcover volumes. I'm going to buy them all in English and in French. And in Spanish, too, if it ever comes out in Spanish.
34) I took piano lessons from when I was 6 to when I was about 13. Then I played piano (and saxophone) for our high school's jazz band. You'd think I'd be better at playing the piano than I am, but I'm too lazy to practice hard enough.
35) I've always been kind of lazy and kind of a procrastinator. It's taken me weeks to get around to making this list.
36) I'm not great at remembering names and faces, probably because I have way too much of my brain given over to remembering song lyrics.
37) My favorite ice cream - the perfect ice cream - is Breyer's vanilla.
38) I'm glad I've taken so many photos over the years; there's so much I would have forgotten if I hadn't. Sometimes I wish I had taken even more photos. I'm making up for lost time now.
39) I like when people leave comments on my photos up on Flickr. Hint, hint.
40) I'd like to write a book someday, but so does everyone.
41) Everyone also wants to be in a rock band, too. I was in one. We played at friends' houses, and a bar once, but it was too hard to keep it up while we all went off to college.
42) Sadly, my chosen career has far fewer groupies. But I love that I can work from home.
43) I am a terrible drawer (as in someone who draws, not as in something that holds silverware. I guess I'm okay at holding silverware.)
44) I am an inveterate pack-rat. I save way too many things that probably don't need saving.
45) I think I'm an okay singer, but I could be wrong. I know I'm not the next American Idol.
46) I don't like my speaking voice. I cringe when I hear recordings of it.
47) I know I've been very fortunate in life. I also believe that one does make one's own luck, or at least a good part of it.
48) I grew up near the beach and I love the beach to this day. I'd go every summer weekend if I could.
49) And I'd go skiing every winter weekend if I could. I learned to ski while I was in grad school, and I immediately regretted not learning when I was younger. That will be one of the things I'd change when I go back and live my life again.
50) I'd also ask more girls to dance.
Tags: random
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12:43 am
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Wordle
Okay, this is cool. Enter your LiveJournal URL (or any blog URL, or any text) into Wordle and it'll create a "word cloud". That is, an image of the most commonly used words, where the larger the font, the more often the word is used. The colors, fonts, and orientation are infinitely customizable, too.
I don't know how many entries it goes back, but I'm not surprised that my biggest word is "Violet".
Tags: violet, wordle
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05:43 pm
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Welcome To 2009
In the month since I last posted, we drove down to Florida for Christmas at my parents' house, and I went out for New Year's Eve while Sue stayed home sick with a bad cold. There were regular updates on Facebook and Flickr and Geni and my other blog. Some work, some sleep, a bunch of nights of LittleBigPlanet on our new PlayStation 3, and there, you're all caught up with my life.
Now to catch you all up on Violet's life: she's ten months old today! Within the past week she's become able to stand holding on to things (though she won't pull up - we have to put her there), and two days ago she got from her stomach to her hands and knees for the first time, and then to a sitting up position all by herself for the first time. She still won't crawl, though - she prefers to get around by rolling, which greatly amused all the other moms at a playgroup that day. From one end of the room to the other, as long as the path is clear. I have to admit it is kind of funny to watch, yet it seems rather normal to us. You mean to tell me that all babies don't go through a rolling phase?
She's still a very good eater, she's beginning to take some sips from a cup (but useless at a sippy cup), and she has no stranger anxiety whatsoever. When in a restaurant, it's hard to get her to eat because she's too busy smiling at the waitresses, who more often than not positively moon over her. Her sleep schedule is two or three naps a day, in bed between 10 and 11pm, then up between 8 and 9am. Maybe once or twice a week she'll get up crying around 6ish; fortunately putting a pacifier in her mouth puts her back to sleep instantly. Even more fortunately, she slept in until 10am both days this past weekend.
I've had dozens of people tell me she should be a baby model, though it's hard to brag because it's impossible to tell who's being sincere and who's merely being polite. I should carry around a polygraph....
Tags: violet
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03:35 pm
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Magic Kingdom
We've been to Magic Kingdom a bunch of times before, but we never noticed before that most of the rides are designed so that a baby can easily be brought on. Without a baby, I guess you don't pay much attention. But when you're traveling with a baby, and you see all the other babies on line, it becomes obvious. It was a pleasant surprise.
So Violet's first theme park ride was Snow White's Scary Adventures (which aren't that scary), and she seemed to like it enough. Ditto for Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, It's A Small World, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (which is a laser target-shooting ride where she could play with the lever that spun the car around, thus ruining daddy's aim). She sat patiently through the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor and Mickey's PhilharMagic. But I think her favorite ride (judging by her bouncing and laughing) was being pushed around the park in her stroller.
She didn't even mind the lines, of which there were plenty, it being the day before Thanksgiving. We spent over 12 hours at the park and didn't get to do everything, but at least it was a gorgeous day, and Violet behaved perfectly throughout. Sue's parents live half an hour away, so there's no question we'll be back to do what she missed the first time.
The rest of the week we pretty much did nothing except eat turkey, play bridge, and drink lots of wine. Which was fine by me.
Also, Violet was a perfect doll on the plane, so we were worrying about nothing. Though airport security was still a pain in the ass. They made us take Violet's shoes off. But then didn't blink at the 8oz bottles of formula we brought through. I don't understand them at all.
(PS - Here are photos of our day at Magic Kingdom if you want to see...)
Tags: disney, family, florida, vacation, violet
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02:01 pm
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On A Plane
This evening we're going to be at Sue's parents' house in Orlando. Which means in a few hours we're going to be taking Violet on her first airplane trip. We've gotten all the advice we can, now all that's left is for you to wish us luck...
Happy Thanksgiving!
Tags: vacation, violet
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11:48 pm
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Grandpa
My grandfather died 25 years ago this week. I was 13, he was 62. So I definitely remember him; sadly my memories of his poor health for the last two or so years of his life crowd out everything else. He had a stroke, lost a leg to a blood clot, was able to mostly live at home, but was in and out of hospitals until he passed away.
He and my grandmother (who died five years later) smoked a lot, which is oddly comforting, as in my mind it fully explains why they died so young. I need that, because my dad is turning 60 in a few weeks. He doesn't smoke and thankfully he seems to be in good health. I can no more imagine him sick and wheelchair-bound than I can imagine him sprouting wings and flying to the moon.
Yet I don't dare ask about how my grandfather seemed when he turned 60; I don't think I want to know.
I'll be seeing my parents tomorrow, and I'm thankful for that.
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04:05 pm
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Eight Months
Violet is eight months old today! She's sitting up quite well (if we place her that way), but isn't even close to standing, and while she can roll from her back to her front pretty easily, she seems to have forgotten how to roll back to her front. So after a few minutes on her front she'll complain until we rescue her.
She definitely recognizes her pacifier and her bottle and knows what to do with them - she'll hold the bottle herself with no problem (though if she's sitting up, she'll only suck air), and she can find her pacifier if it's anywhere within reach and put it in her mouth the right way. She happily eats from a spoon (though a bottle is still much easier for us) and can feed herself a cracker. She was never much of a spit-upper, but now it happens almost never. And she's just barely getting her first tooth (finally) - a bottom incisor that we can't yet see, but we can feel.
We're really happy that she's quite consistent at sleeping 10 hours a night. Sometimes nine, sometimes 11. Usually from about 10pm to about 8am - it's a wonderful schedule.
(PS - Sorry this isn't the most interesting post for you all to read; this one's mostly for me to look back on to remember what she was doing when.)
(PPS - she's nine days shy of eight months in the photo, but I love this photo!)
Tags: violet
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06:59 pm
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Election Results
Violet won her first election! "Scariest Costume" at the baby Halloween party we went to this past Saturday. Well, she did run essentially unopposed in the category - most of the thirty or so other babies were ladybugs and turtles and ducks and flowers and adorable things like that. Here we thought we were being lame in just buying a skeleton sweatsuit for lack of energy to think of anything better, yet it turns out it's quite the unique idea, especially for an eight-month-old girl. I probably should have guessed that.
Cute Halloween photos here!
Tags: violet
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05:24 pm
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Princeton-Harvard Game
Well, Violet didn't go to her first football game after all - the weather was too wet and windy to be stuck sitting in the stadium all day (watching our team lose, as it would turn out), so Sue and I and two intrepid friends decided to skip the game and wander around campus instead.
Our first stop after brunch was the check out the tailgates, which surprisingly, none of us had been to before. As undergrads, we were always marching around with the band before football games. And as alumni, we'd be having brunch at our eating clubs before the games. But apparently people do tailgate, even on miserable rainy days. Who knew? One family even had erected a massive tent the size of a small wedding reception, stocked with wine and food and blaring 80s music to compete with the 311-sounding band across the field.
The game had already started when we left to go check out the new Frank Gehry-designed Lewis Library, which none of us were particularly big fans of. But it's miles better than the new Butler College, which somehow manages to be uglier than the hugely-unloved buildings it replaced. Couldn't Meg Whitman or someone have donated another $25 million for something better?
Fortunately, the ice cream at Halo Pub was still satisfying, as was the spread at Cloister Inn for dinner. And Violet was a perfect doll all day; she didn't even complain when I spilled red wine on her at Cloister. Nor did she complain when we were stuck in horrendous traffic on the way back home, but she didn't need to - I was complaining for all of us.
(Full set of pictures from the day here.)
Tags: princeton
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12:21 pm
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The Portable Baby
Violet is easy to take places - she's done remarkably well in restaurants and cars and parties and caves and zoos and weddings and amusement parks. At the wineries this past weekend she was a big hit; everyone loved her. Now we're hoping our luck holds as we take her to watch Princeton beat Harvard this weekend - it'll be her first sporting event, and probably the first time we have her out in chilly weather for a good length of time. We're apprehensive about her first plane ride (to Orlando for Thanksgiving) - she's become very restless in our laps and it's been months since she's fallen asleep in our arms. Perhaps we're not as comfortable as her bouncy chair or the floor. And we still plan on taking her skiing this winter - she won't be skiing of course, so it'll be her first time in some sort of day-care arrangement. So far she likes strangers, but who knows what she'll be thinking in two or three months?
Tags: violet
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06:25 pm
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St. Gertrude
There is no patron saint to call upon to help you avoid traffic jams.
There are many patron saints of travellers, but somehow I doubt that they would be too sympathetic to my heartfelt pleas that I make it through the Lincoln Tunnel in less than half an hour. When the old saints had to go to State College, Pennsylvania, they had to walk. Still, before I left, I sent out a Facebook shout-out to St. Gertrude of Nivelles to do what she could.
I had plenty of time to wonder if I had made the right choice as I was crawling through the random streets of Hoboken and Weehauken after it turned out that the expressway leading out of the tunnel was mysteriously closed. Traffic didn't ease up much through New Jersey, but we did eventually make it to State College that evening (directions: drive to the middle of nowhere and hang a left), only to find that our room at the Ramada lacked the crib that we had been assured they had for us when I called eight hours earlier.
Fortunately, we had a AAA guide and a laptop, and soon we were calling every other hotel in town, all of which were at least $50 a night more expensive than our room. $100 is more than one wants to spend to make an angry point. But then the last hotel we called (and the last we were going to call) was Penn Stater, run by the Penn State School of Hospitality Management. They had a room - and a crib - for the same price! Sold. It turned out that the lack of the crib at the Ramada was totally a blessing in disguise, as the room at the Penn Stater was just so much bigger and cleaner and newer and nicer. We settled in (at 12:30 in the morning - I left Queens at 3:30), much happier than we were just an hour or so ago.
It seems that St. Gertrude was also the right saint to appeal to earlier that day; among her many duties is helping to obtain lodging while travelling. So hooray for St. Gertrude!
(Why were we in State College? For a wedding of course (photos here). It was fun, as most weddings tend to be. Unlike most weddings, there's a second party to look forward to - a Chinese banquet a few weeks from now here in the city. I should not eat until then so that I have enough room in my stomach...)
Tags: violet, wedding
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06:02 pm
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More About Violet, For Lack Of Anything Else To Write About
Violet and her neighbor Lily are six-and-a-half months old already. They're almost at the age (seven months) where they're still babies, while no longer being "new babies". It's a great age. Violet can almost sit up, but she still doesn't move around much. She grabs for things, but can't really destroy anything yet. She makes cute noises and is usually quite happy, maybe because she's still not teething. And her diapers are big enough to hold her once-every-other-day poop without leaking. She's good at going out, she smiles at strangers, she loves her stroller, she falls asleep easily in her car seat. She's never been sick. She's getting better at eating from a spoon. And she always sleeps nine to eleven hours a night. Plus, she's still adorable.
Perhaps we were blessed with an unusually good baby, but so far this parenting thing has been way easier than I had been led to believe it would be. Am I the only one who thinks this? I kind of feel like I am...
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09:30 pm
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No Dumping Milk
Does anyone have any idea why one wouldn't be allowed to dump milk down the bathroom drains?
(This was taken in the cow building at the New York State Fair. I know nothing about the ins and outs of cow husbandry...)
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06:06 pm
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Labor Day Weekend
I think we had a better Labor Day weekend than you did.
Why? Because we saw monkeys riding dogs, and you didn't.
(PS - More photos from the New York State fair are here.)
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12:47 pm
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Food!
We've fed Violet some rice cereal a few times now, but last night was the first time she ate some "real" food: eggplant!
Why eggplant? Because Sue and I don't much like eggplant. Yet we keep getting eggplant in our CSA share every week. We've tried to work with it, and we've discovered some eggplant recipes that aren't so bad, but now we're just finished. We've had our fill of eggplant this year already. So I decided to steam and puree one of them to see if Violet liked it.
She didn't hate it. She made a weird face at the first spoonful, but swallowed it all. And swallowed most of the next six or seven spoonfuls (making much less of a mess than she did with the rice cereal). But then I could tell she had her fill of eggplant, too. I can't really blame her. Poor girl...
Tags: violet
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05:15 pm
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August Is Almost Over?
I don't have much to say, so I'm just going to post another photo of Violet.
Tags: violet
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07:10 pm
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I've Wasted Half My Life!
August 6, 2008, seven in the evening, work's done, I'm feeding the baby and relaxing at home with "The Wizard Of Evergreen Terrace", a rare episode of the Simpsons I don't remember much about....
Homer is driving, listening to the inane DJs on KBBL:
DJ: Okay, here's another News Flush! [toilet flush sound] Doctors say the life expectancy of the average man is now seventy-six point two years!
Homer: [gasps and spins his car out across the highway ] Seventy-six point two? But I'm already thirty-eight point one! I've wasted half my life!
This sends Homer into a deep depression that provides the impetus for the episode's plot. And it kind of depressed me, too, for I calculated that on that day I was 38 years and 43 days old. Which rounds to... thirty-eight point one.
I did not need to know that I am as old as Homer Simpson.
(Later in the episode, Marge reminds Homer that he's actually 39. Which sent him moaning into a fetal position, yet cheered me slightly. Only slightly. I can't shake the feeling that I've wasted half my life watching Simpsons reruns.)
Tags: random
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10:14 am
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Awards
I've never entered a photo contest, but if I were to enter one, this wouldn't be it...
(PS - More photos from our walk through Flushing Meadows that day are here.)
Tags: random
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05:23 pm
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8/8/8
Violet is 5 months old today! We don't have anything special planned for the occasion. We'll just be home watching the Olympic opening ceremony with friends. I imagine that being on the Olympic Opening Ceremony Planning Committee has to be great fun; judging from previous opening (and closing) ceremonies, I'm thinking that they drink good liquor until they're nice and tipsy, take suggestions for a few hours, and then use *every single drunken idea* that was suggested. A million balloons? Of course. Giant puppets representing Olympic values? You betcha. How about Ferraris doing donuts on a sheet of ice while lasers and fireworks blaze? Why the heck not? (Yep, that Ferrari thing happened. Torino Winter Olympics. Let's see the Chinese top that!)
(Okay, I'm pretty darn sure that the Chinese can top that.)
Tags: olympics, violet
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03:22 pm
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My First Car
My first car was a hand-me-down from my parents: their giant 1979 Chrysler New Yorker. It got 12 mpg and started falling apart pretty much the day my parents bought it, but it had power windows and locks and seats, which were still novelties in the late 70s. Back before kids needed to be strapped in like Hannibal Lechter, it fit half a soccer team, and the ride to Wyoming or Florida was super comfortable.
I learned to drive on it (somehow I was even able to parallel park it), and got to use it sometimes the summer after high school (on Long Island you couldn't get a full license until 17 and I graduated from high school three days before my 17th birthday). My parents then let me use it for the summers I was home from college, then finally let me just bring it to college with me junior and senior years. Not that I had much need for a car on campus, but it came in handy on occasion.
Princeton has a unique class schedule - the fall semester started in mid-September, with a week off at the end of October, a short break for Thanksgiving, and a week-and-a-half off for Christmas after classes ended. Then January was a week-and-a-half of '"reading period" and a week-and-a-half of finals. So your final exam could be over a month after your last class. I kind of liked it that way; it gave you lots of time to prepare and do final papers and projects and such.
Anyway, at the end of January, we had a week off (called "intersession") before the spring semester started. It was easy enough for me to get home, just a two-to-three-hour drive. Princeton organized a ski trip to Killington that week, but at the time I didn't ski and had no interest in doing so then (I kick myself now, considering how cheap it was, and thinking back on how much fun it would have been to ski with a couple hundred schoolmates). Sue wasn't skiing then, either, but she also wasn't planning on going home (too far without a car). So I got the brilliant idea to offer to drive her home myself.
I had wanted to date her for months, but she had a boyfriend from home. Very frustrating, especially since she kept wanting to hang out with me. Driving her home meant I was doing her a huge favor, plus I'd get to spend nearly a week alone with her. And I had never been to Maine before. It was the perfect plan.
And it worked, though I wasn't at all sure that it had when the trip was over and I was dropping her off at the train station (we had stopped at my house on the way to and from Maine, and she was heading back to Princeton while I stayed home the last weekend of break). I had a very very nervous weekend...
In conclusion, that's why it's handy to have a car at college. The end.
(PS - Photos from that month - January 1991 - are here.)
Tags: college
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12:11 am
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Home Stretch
Well, this is it - my last week as a free man. I pick up my linux machine from the office on Monday and then I have a whole week to curse at it and try to add it to my wireless network before I'm officially starting work again. It's going to be great to work from home, though I'll have to fight the urge to constantly go upstairs and check on Violet - not that I'd think the nanny will be doing a bad job, I'll just want to spend time with the baby like I've been doing.
No, I'll have to do my job and the nanny will have to do hers. It's weird to be picking some stranger to come and be a huge part of Violet's life for a few years; I feel like I'm relinquishing my #1 spot. Reluctantly.
One nanny we interviewed told us that the family she worked for forbade her from telling the kids she loved them, and vice versa. We thought that was thoroughly ridiculous, but now I kind of understand. I can feel the pangs of jealousy already. Of course, that's still ridiculous. We'll try not to be those parents.
We finally got Violet baptized a week ago (photos here); I think both my brother and I were baptized within a week or two of being born, but these days the Church doesn't seem to have the same sense of urgency. Anyway, hottest day of the year and there I was walking eight blocks to the church in a new suit. I thanked God for air conditioning when I got there. Our parents were there, as was my brother and his wife (the godparents) and their kids, and two other families having their babies baptized at the same time. What sounded like a hundred bored whiny toddlers (including my niece and nephew) were running around as well, which kind of robbed the ceremony of some dignity, but then again, theirs is the kingdom of Heaven and such (Matthew 19:13-14)
Sue's parents could only stay the weekend; my parents stayed all week. It was nice to have them around, now that Violet can keep them entertained simply by breathing. And they're only too happy to take care of her. My mom even seem thrilled to change her poopy diaper; too bad I can't hire her to be our nanny. One can let one's kid love her grandmother all she wants without being jealous.
Tags: violet
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05:36 pm
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Wall-E
Looking to go out to the movies and can't find a babysitter? Our solution: drive to Maine and go to a drive-in. There might be drive-ins closer than Maine, but there are none left on Long Island. We used to go all the time as kids, and then as teenagers, and then less often as twentysomethings, as all the drive-in theaters in the area kept closing. I don't think we'd been to one in about ten years. But with a baby, it's the only way to go without spending $50 on a sitter. Violet was a bit fussy at first, but after being fed, she fell right asleep as all kids should at the drive-in.
We saw a double feature of Wall-E and Get Smart. And only $14 for the two of us! Get Smart was unobjectionably mediocre - nothing to avoid, but nothing to write about, either. Therefore, nothing else shall be written. Wall-E, however, is further proof in my mind that the only people who should be allowed to make movies are the geniuses at Pixar. Much has been written about the lack of dialog in huge sections of the movie, and that that it's no impediment to enjoying it, but what also struck me is that there were no evil robots. Evil robots would have been the obvious choice. But all the robots in the movie worked to serve humankind well. Too well, as the problem turned out to be. Even the antagonist robot of the major conflict of the film (which the film delightfully takes its sweet time in setting up) wasn't bad - after all, all he (and the giant corporation who set him up) wanted was to keep the humans happy, if not exactly fulfilled.
To say more would reveal too much. Okay, that's sort of an excuse not to write any more. But really, this is definitely one of those movies where the less you know going in, the better. So go see it, even at a non-drive-in theater.
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01:26 am
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July!
I feel I haven't used my time off to its fullest potential. Oh, it's not that I've done nothing, but I feel like I've done nothing much since getting back from our vacation in May. I take care of Violet, cook, sleep, upload some photos, and repeat. I would have liked to do more, and I actually do have enough time to, say, clean my bedroom, but when I do have non-Violet time, I simply veg.
Doing nothing doesn't bother me; it's just that I'm going back to work by the end of this month. And if I can't get anything done now, what hope do I have once I'm working?
Fortunately, I'll be working from home now! The short story is that I demanded it and they said no. But when they saw I was ready to find another job, they changed their minds. Only they'll be treating me as a contract worker. I don't know why, that's just the way they want to do it. So I get a 25% raise, but I get absolutely zero benefits, since I'll technically be self-employed, and that's another thing I'm not getting to on my to-do list: figure out how (legally and for tax purposes) to be self-employed.
While I'm home, I can still go to the local new parents' meetup group. We meet every Wednesday at 12:30 in the basement of the Gymboree (see accompanying photo), and then often go out to lunch afterwards. The group is a good way to meet people (obviously - that's the intent), so after 12 years in this neighborhood, I now run into people I know on the street! As expected, I'm the only father there, but unexpectedly, I'm just about the only male there, period. The baby sex ratio is way skewed - each week there tends to be about 10-15 girls and 1-3 boys. I'm beginning to forget that little boys exist.
This past weekend we did make it to the beach with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) anemone and her husband and their baby (a girl, natch, who turned 1 the day after my birthday), along with some other childless friends. (Photos here.) Hot beautiful day for it, yet surprisingly uncrowded, with fun large rolling waves to play and cool off in. (Note to those from Seattle or San Francisco: yes, it is possible to swim in the ocean and thus one should bring a bathing suit next time.) I do hope there will be a next time - sure, I have all summer, but don't be surprised if October rolls around and you read a post from me complaining that I somehow never made it back to the beach.
(Well, this coming weekend we're going to Sue's family's beach house in Maine, but the beach isn't quite the same. Still, it gets me out of the house...)
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09:34 pm
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Happy My Birthday To You
Seven years ago on my birthday, I was water-skiing on Lake Como and staying at the beautiful Villa D'Este. This year, my birthday is no Italian luxury resort, but it was very nice for my neighbor to take me out to lunch and extremely nice of her to offer to take care of Violet while Sue and I go out to dinner tonight, and it was nice of my brother to stop by, and I'm appreciating all the nice phone calls and emails and Facebook messages - thank you each and every one of you.
Recently, I've been noticing that people who I think are older than me are actually my age. I hate that - it means that I probably look older than I think I do. That'll probably be true for the rest of my life.
So I was wondering, who *is* my age? Here's what I discovered on imdb:
- Born in 1970, older than me - Zack de la Rocha (1/12), Skeet Ulrich (1/20), Heather Graham (1/29), Simon Pegg (2/14), John Frusciante (3/5), Jordan Knight (3/17), Queen Latifah (3/18), Lara Flynn Boyle (3/24), Vince Vaughn (3/28), Jennifer Weiner (3/28), Jason Lee (4/25), Melania Trump (4/26), Andre Agassi (4/29), Uma Thurman (4/29), Will Arnett (5/4), Ghostface Killah (5/9), Tina Fey (5/18), Naomi Campbell (5/22), Rivers Cuomo (6/13), Phil Mickelson (6/16), Will Forte (6/17)
- Born in 1970, same day as me - Glenn Medeiros (6/24)
- Born in 1970, younger than me - Beck (7/8), Kevin Smith (8/2), Wendy Whoppers (8/13), Malcolm-Jamal Warner (8/18), Fat Joe (8/19), Jay Mohr (8/23), Claudia Schiffer (8/25), Debbie Gibson (8/31), Mystikal (9/22), Ani DiFranco (9/23), Tony Hale (9/30), Kelly Ripa (10/2), Matt Damon (10/8), Michelle Malkin (10/20), Jasmin St. Claire (10/23), Ethan Hawke (11/6), Morgan Spurlock (11/7), Sarah Silverman (12/1), Jennifer Connelly (12/12), The Naked Cowboy (12/23)
- Born in 1970, dead - River Phoenix (8/23), Savannah (10/9)
You might have noticed that I also discovered that imdb has listings for porn stars. I really couldn't resist adding "Wendy Whoppers" to the list, whoever she is. Feel free to google her.
Sigh. Tomorrow is just another day...
Tags: birthday
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01:54 pm
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Stupid Lousy Perfect Weather
I need to kick some meteorologists in the butt.
I had planned to have a birthday get-together at the beach yesterday, but yesterday morning, the weather reports all said thunderstorms, possibly severe ones, all afternoon. So I called all the people who were planning on coming (unlike in years past, this year I actually convinced more than one person to come with us - why is it so hard to get people to the beach?) and cancelled. It seemed like the prudent thing to do.
And then I sat at home all day and moped, angry at the beautiful warm sunny day it turned out to be.
Fortunately, I did manage to check one project off of my (long) list: photographing Reunions cups. You see, currently taking up space in our attic are hundreds of cups I've collected over the past twenty years of going to Reunions. For years, I've been meaning to organize and take pictures of them, so I can get rid of them less reluctantly. And so that became my day's project - sitting outside on my roof deck, taking picture after picture (sitting under the deck umbrella because it was TOO SUNNY - stupid meteorologists), then sitting inside at night uploading them all. (Here they are, if you're interested.) And now I'm talking to the Princetoniana committee to see if they'll take them off my hands and give them a good home.
So at least it was a productive day. Now I probably should search through other piles of junk to see what I can photograph and chuck. I could probably clean out my entire house that way...
Oh yeah, and we've rescheduled the beach trip for Saturday. Unless it rains.
Tags: beach, birthday, reunions
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03:41 pm
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Eleven
You think your air conditioner is powerful? Ours goes to eleven...
Tags: random
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05:10 pm
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Paternity Leave
When I tell people that I'm taking 12 weeks off to stay home with the kid, the most common reaction by far is along the lines of "that's so great that your company lets you do that!" Which is kind of an odd reaction, considering that it's the law; my company (and probably your company, too) has to let me take leave. If it were truly up to them, they wouldn't.
It's unpaid leave, but I wanted the time off more than I wanted the money. Because being home with Violet is great. It's much better than working. Sure, she can be demanding on occasion, but so can my job. And my job isn't as rewarding.
Oddly enough, I think I'm getting less done around the house than I did when I was working. Violet's "down time" (when I'm not actively feeding, bathing, changing, walking, or playing with her) is maddeningly unpredictable. I can't say there's not enough of it; it's just that when she goes to sleep and/or plays happily alone, I never know if it's going to be for ten minutes or three hours. So I never know if I can finish what I want to start. And yet I feel like I have an infinite amount of time. So nothing feels urgent.
And now all of a sudden it's 5pm. And it's Friday. I should start dinner.
(The lovely father-daughter moment captured at right is of Violet's first dip in the ocean. We went to Jones Beach on her third-month birthday and it was a smashing success. We must do it again. And indeed we are, a week from Sunday, just before my birthday. Are you joining us?)
(Yesterday, I took her to her first mall - plus it was the first time I've driven her anywhere by myself. We survived. And now that she's been to the beach and the mall, she's a true Long Island girl.)
Tags: violet
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11:06 pm
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Reunions 2008
I am perpetually surprised. Every darn month it's "I can't believe it's [name of month] already!" It's never "Well, I'm certainly ready for [name of month], it definitely feels like [name of month] should be here right now." No, I apparently still haven't gotten the hang of this "time" concept.
And in May, I always think "I can't believe Reunions is coming up!". And right now it's "I can't believe Reunions is over!" You'd think after 20 Reunions in a row, I'd start believing it.
I don't know what Violet believes yet, but she handled her first Reunions like a star. And we did, too. Reunions is a bit different with a baby, as you can imagine. We've now noticed that here are lots of stairs on campus. Pushing through a crowded eating club for meals is tricky. And while Violet is good at staying up until midnight (or later), or sleeping in her stroller whenever she feels like it, we forgot that most courtyards get REALLY LOUD once the bands start playing. That's probably not good for baby ears. So Sue and I took turns finding quiet places for her while the other hung out with friends and partied. Or we found quiet places with friends together. We managed to stay out past 2 a.m., which is more than I can say for some of our childless friends.
At 12 weeks, Violet wasn't the youngest baby there (I met babies of 8 and 6 weeks), but she was adorable enough to get lots of attention regardless. And I didn't mind the attention, either, especially when it was from a gaggle of gals from the Class of 2006. But it was fun to have a bunch of wives of the Class of 1962 moon over her, too. They were so sweet and grandmotherly - I probably could have convinced some of them to babysit while we went out. Maybe next year.
So as always, it was a fantastic weekend. And of course I took hundreds of pictures. Then Sue had to start work again on Monday. Poor Sue. I can't believe she's back at work. Me, I'm home with the baby for about two more months, and then... well, we haven't really figured that out yet. Stay tuned.
Tags: princeton, reunions, violet
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12:28 am
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3241.4 Miles
Our 3241.4-mile road trip is over! In 18 days, we covered 14 states (plus D.C.), saw friends we hadn't seen in years, and made our parents very happy. We took Violet to National Parks and bourbon distilleries and Disney World and highway rest stops galore. She saw Gettysburg, the Washington Monument, Lincoln's birthplace, the Grand Ole Opry, roller coasters, caves, a 62-foot Jesus, fine barbecue joints, okapis, peach groves, Amish people, swimming pools...
Yes, she's seen all that before she was ten weeks old, yet she's never been out to Long Island (8 miles down the highway).
She'll remember none of it, of course, but I have hundreds of photos to prove we were there. (And I'm still adding more.)
I'm happy to be home, but part of me wanted to keep on driving while we had the chance. There's still so much to see...
Tags: vacation
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12:09 pm
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Universal Stroller
It turns out that taking a two-month-old to a theme park isn't such a bad idea!
This past Thursday was Violet's two-month birthday, and so we (Sue, her dad, and I - her mom was at work) celebrated by going to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. (Well, the timing was really a coincidence, but we're telling her it was to celebrate her birthday, and that's the story we're sticking to.) We were a bit wary, unsure of how she'd handle the day, but she behaved like a perfect little angel (not like the Old Testament angels wrestling and carrying flaming swords.) Or maybe the heat just conked her out. Regardless, she was remarkably easy to have around.
As a bonus, she worked as our own personal Express Pass. All the rides at both resorts have a "baby swap" at the end of the line, where one or more people can wait with the baby while the others in the group go on the ride. When they're done, they swap places with the people waiting with the baby so they can go on the ride. Or some can go again; they don't check too closely. Pretty nifty, no? And the bonus part is that the baby swap room is almost always set up at the end of the express line. So essentially, if you show up with a baby, you get to cut the line. Sweet.
Not that there were many lines to cut that day. Being a Thursday in early May, the longest line we saw was a mere 30 minutes, and even that was rare. Zero to five minutes were more the order of the day. Even the brand-spanking-new Simpsons ride (which officially opened the day after we were there - it was still in "previews" on Thursday) had an easy ten-minute wait on the regular line. With clips from Simpsons TV shows running, it was probably the most fun line I've been on. And the ride was great, too.
The question now is whether we hit another theme park on Sunday, or just stay in and not push our luck with Violet, in case Thursday was an aberration...
(If you're interested, click here for all my Universal Orlando photos...)
Tags: florida, violet
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12:11 am
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Welcome To Florida!
Some people had warned us against taking Violet on this long road trip, but so far, so good. We left NYC at 12:30 in the afternoon (later than we had expected) on Wednesday, did some brief sightseeing in DC and had dinner there with friends, and stayed our first night in a hotel south of Richmond. Then it was a relatively short drive to Raleigh, where we stayed Thursday night with more friends. Violet was a bit crankier on the long haul from Raleigh to Jacksonville on Friday, but it wasn't anything that stopping to feed her couldn't cure. So that leg took 11 hours - longer than it would usually take, but we could afford to be leisurely. Now we're at my parents for a few days before heading down to Sue's parents for a few more days. Sadly, I don't think I'm going to be able to get a job driving around the country visiting people, so we're eventually going to have to come back home. Drat.
Tags: florida, vacation
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04:10 pm
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Squill!
In my previous post, I had a photograph of Violet lying down in a bed of pretty little blue flowers that covered her great-uncle's lawn. Which, by the way, was the first time we had ever put her down on the dirty ground outside. Before doing so, we had a moment akin to psyching oneself up to jump into a cold swimming pool (okay, okay, on the count of three put the baby down, okay, one, two... okay, let me catch my breath first...)
Anyway, neither I nor Sue nor any of her relatives knew what the flowers were. "Bluebells" was the best guess, but it didn't sound right, considering that the flowers weren't bell-shaped. Well, some knowledgeable people at the FLOWERS Flickr group identified them as "squill". Probably "Siberian squill" (Scilla siberica), to be exact.
I had never even heard the word "squill" before (have you?) but apparently, it's real. Not that I'm surprised that there are flowers I've never heard of; identifying nature-type things such as flowers, trees, and birds is not at all my strong suit. But even though I can't identify a marigold or a zinnia, at least I've heard of them. This "squill" concept is entirely new to me, and yet there it is all over the darn place. Shows how much I know.
In other news, today is my last day at work before I go on twelve glorious weeks of paternity leave. It's unpaid leave, aside from my vacation time, which I have to use all of, so I'll have no vacation time when I come back at the end of July through the end of the year. But I still think it'll totally be worth it. After over twelve years here, I sorely need a break. A longer one than twelve weeks, really. Who knows, maybe that can be arranged...
Also, "squill" is a fun word to say. Squill squill squill...
Current Mood: squilly
Tags: violet
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05:26 pm
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Violet's First Vacation!
I'm happy to report we successfully brought Violet to Boston and back this past weekend. It was her first time out of New York City!
We were there for Sue's cousin's wedding - actually, her second cousin. Me, I wouldn't know if my second cousin was working in the same building as me, but that side of Sue's family tends to stay close. Much of the weekend involved introducing Violet to lots of relatives, including her third cousin, Helen. Who in the world has (knowingly) ever met any of their third cousins? Given that Violet is only six weeks old and Helen is only six months old, I doubt they'll remember meeting (though I do have photographic evidence). But given that there are three guys in Sue's generation who are still years away from getting married, I have no doubt that the two will be playing happily at some future family wedding.
Violet slept through almost all of the car trip, and was very good while various relatives manhandled her. She only melted down when we got to the church and - of course - right in the middle of the wedding ceremony. (What can I say - gals always cry at weddings.) But a quick feeding made her happy and she was content to sleep through the entire reception. We stayed awake and had a fun time. All in all, the weekend worked out great. Sure, it helped to have lots of relatives eager to take turns holding the baby, but we're still confident in our ability to pull off a road trip to Florida next month.
(More photos from the wedding are here - as of today, I've only uploaded a quarter of the photos I have, so check back over the next few weeks if you're interested...)
Tags: violet
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03:11 pm
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New Experiences
I knew that once we had a baby, I was going to do lots of things I had never done before. I was not expecting that one of those things would be to buy a humidifier. You see, having grown up just over a mile from the ocean, I had always viewed humidity as something to be conquered, not encouraged. Our evil foe humidity caused mold and warping and out-of-tune pianos. So our dehumidifier ran nearly nonstop from spring through fall. In the winter we could enjoy dry, spark-filled air naturally.
But when Violet came down with a little congestion a couple of weeks ago, the pediatrician recommended that we get an un-dehumidifier. That is, a humidifier. We were told it'd help clear her up a bit, though I'm not clear on why. Still, "anything for our girl", so I bit the bullet and bought this adorable penguin humidifier . And I'm happy to say Violet is breathing much better now. Whether the penguin had anything to do with that is unclear, but at least it's really cute.
In other news, we took Violet to church for the first time this weekend, and she behaved admirably. Somehow the organ and the singing put her right to sleep, and when she woke up later in the Mass, it seemed to keep her calm. So another thing I might do that I've never done before is install a pipe organ in our house. Hey, you go with that works.
Also, here's a short video showing how much Violet loves her swing:
( Baby video behind this link... )
Tags: violet
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04:22 pm
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Violet On Video!
Flickr now allows users to upload short videos! Given that my point-and-shoot camera has video capability (a capability I have never once used in the nearly two years I've owned the camera), and that I have a one-month-old baby hanging around the house (you may have heard the news), I found Flickr's offer irresistible. So behold: my first two masterworks!
( Warning: baby videos behind this link... )
Tags: video, violet
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