Sharing

Hannah has discovered sharing. I don't know if it's related, but a recent study has shown that children not much older than Hannah can demonstrate altruistic behavior (helping others). This past week she learned to hand us things when we say "please", and that we will give it back to her when we say "Would you like it back?". It's probably not altruism, but she loves it as a little game nonetheless. What seems a little more like genuine sharing is her sharing of food. We've found that she is more likely to eat her food when sharing is involved. It started with her though; unprompted she will eat half of a Cheerio, Puff or yogurt melt and then try to put the other half in one of our mouths. Then if we do the same, even when she seems fussy and doesn't want to eat, she will take the half eaten item from us and finish it. Apparently food is more appetizing when it has changed hands a couple of times. Heidi found that if she puckers up and holds a Cheerio in her lips, Hannah can't resist grabbing it and eating it. Makes you feel like a mama bird. Wow...that didn't sound gross until I typed it out.

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Apple Pie

Today for breakfast I wanted some bacon. We are supposed to start giving Hannah more of what we eat, so I thought "It would be awesome to give Hannah some bacon. Who doesn't love the taste of bacon?" So I asked Heidi (online) if I could give Hannah some bacon. Her response was:

Heidi: DO NOT GIVE HANNAH BACON

I got out a container of apple, vanilla and grain baby food instead. The vanilla didn't stand alone with the apples very well, so I added some cinnamon, which made it taste just like apple pie. I was really excited to give this to her, since I don't always find her food very tasty. She liked the first couple of bites, but then got fussy. I figured if she didn't want it I could always end up eating it, since I wasn't going to bother making bacon just for me and hadn't eaten anything yet. Then Heidi suggested thickening it with oatmeal and putting it on the tray of her high chair so that she could feed herself.

Heidi: did you let her feed herself?

it's ok if she gets messy

Messy she did get. After I put some of the food down for her she ate some of it and swirled some around on the tray. After that I could spoon it to her, so long as she had some of it on the tray to swirl around. This was going really well until she put her hand on her forehead, followed by one on the side. It at least resulted in an excellent hairdo.


Needless to say, this was followed by a quick rinse in the bath tub. This bath went much more smoothly than the last. I remembered her diaper, at least. I did forget a washcloth, however, and hat to scoop up the water with my hands to wash out her hair. Heidi does this very well but it is a skill that I have not yet mastered. That is, I can get the water up to her hair just fine, but I have trouble keeping it out of her eyes. Luckily Hannah is a pretty happy little girl and didn't seem to mind too much. Drying her off even seemed to go pretty well.



Then, after a quick brushing of her hair and a bottle came nap time. Which means blog posting time. Now I'm off to get ready for the day before she wakes up.

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Holy Smokes!

Too much to write about - that is why I have been putting this off. So, to remedy the situation, I have decided to make a list. Then I will update more frequently on current topics and try to check some things off of the list.

1. Hannah is signing - we have the first unprompted sign on video, so I'll be able to put a date on that.
2. Hannah is signing a lot, and learning new ones quickly.
3. Hannah can army crawl.
4. Hannah walks towards our Christmas tree if you hold her hands up. It really only works in that one direction.
5. Hannah loves her booger sucker.
6. I have discovered the absolute best way to put a onesie or a shirt on a baby.
7. Hannah did well on the car ride to Michigan for t-day.
8. I (along with some help) nailed down our ridge vent (on our roof) and removed all of the flying squirrels from our house.
9. Our chocolate lab almost ate himself to death. Literally.

That should get us up to the present.

There. Now I just have to post regularly. Wish me luck!

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Crazy Squirrel

As I was sitting here feeding Hannah a few minutes ago, a squirrel came up to our sliding door. He got right up to the glass and peered in. I thought "Oh, cute squirrel, you are inquisitive about our world! You want to look in at this house that stands out as different in your woods." Then my cat, Cedric, ran up to the window, I suppose thinking very different thoughts. As they looked at each other through the glass, the squirrel tried to jump on the cat. That squirrel just went from cute to crazy. While he wasn't foaming at the mouth, jumping into a house on a cat seems like it might qualify as unusual behavior. Do we have rabid squirrels?

And now for something completely different. Hannah does this cute thing with her arms when she is in her exersaucer (she used to do it in her jumper, but we have retired that toy so that she can learn to walk): she puts them in the seat bucket and then just leans forward or back and uses her forehead to touch things. She's quite the little headbanger.

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High Chair and Halloween

Hannah's first Halloween has come and gone, and I have to say: we were pretty lame. Our original plan was to go trick-or-treating with some friends (including previously mentioned Jade), but Jade and her older brother got sick. Sad. So we stayed home. Hannah got to hang out in her giraffe costume for about 5 minutes.

Then we took it off of her. I guess we could have gone trick-or-treating, but it would have been a little weird, since Hannah can't have candy. "We have a cute baby, so you should give us candy. We would give it to her, but that would make us bad parents." I'm always ready to take one for the team.

Hannah is also moving from her bumbo seat into her high chair. I tried her in it for her breakfast today, but she kept slipping down; I don't think I had it angled right. So she got fussy and I ended up feeding her on my lap, but I did get a picture of her first.

Heidi is going to get her a haircut this week. She definitely needs it, but I'm still a little sad about that. Sure it's frayed and frazzled in the back, but it's the hair she was born with.

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Pointer finger

"Pointer finger" makes more sense to me than "index finger", so we'll stick with it. Hannah has been developing her fine motor skills, and, like everything she does, she is doing it in the cutest fashion possible. She is fascinated with her pointer finger and uses it to touch everything. She has been doing this for a couple weeks now, so I figured I should write about it before she stops. Hannah even uses her pointer finger to touch her other pointer finger. We'll see her looking down at a black spot or hair on her exersaucer, pointer finger out, touching the small thing over and over. She'll point at our face and touch our nose with all her fingers folded in except the one. Then she'll grab our face with all her fingers and try to rip part of it off. Most frequently she chooses lips or a nose, but occasionally she goes for the eyes. It all makes you go "OW! Aww...."

Her morning schedule has changed, and she now takes a two-hour long nap in the morning. I think I was trying to get her to go to sleep before when she was hungry and tired, so she wouldn't nap as long. Oops. Or maybe her schedule changed when she started eating more solid food. So I have been using that time to do more work, but I thought today I should throw in a blog entry. Before the blog dies from neglect. Sorry blog.

Heidi's sister visited last weekend and we all went for a hike. Heidi took this photo of Hannah and I, and I thought the Interwebs might enjoy it:

I'll try to make it less of a gap between entries next time.

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Hannah's um....baptism?

Hannah was baptized this past weekend. While that was the focus of the weekend, it was also really nice to see my whole family. My older sister's then boyfriend Adam was chosen to be Hannah's godfather. I say then boyfriend because he proposed on Monday. Congratulations to them! My older sister, Anna, had to settle with being a "witness", since she is not Catholic. I think we'll still call her a godmother though, since godfather and witness sounds a little weird.

At any rate, it also meant Hannah got to wear this adorable gown:

As for the title: we didn't have time to go over the ceremony with the priest prior to starting. So right at the beginning, Fr. Martin asks us "What do you ask of the Church?". Well...we ask a lot of things of the Church. Is this our one free pass? As I was wondering what one thing he might be after, my younger sister Laura's boyfriend Jason whispers behind me "baptism". Oh yeah...that. So it ends up going something like "bapti..." "baptism!". Once we made it over that hurdle there were a couple of "I do/I don't" questions (hint - I think the answer for all of them is "I do"), and then Fr. Martin says "These questions are very important. That is why, you will see, there will be many more later." Heidi and I looked at each other with a should've-studied-for-this-test kind of look, but the rest were more yes/no questions. I think we got them all right.

Is it bad that we had to cheat on the baptism quiz? And if this were school, then it would have been on the part where you have to fill in what class the quiz is for.

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Hannah and the Dalai Lama

So here's the story: cutest little girl ever receives the attention of the Dalai Lama for embodying all that is precious in life. Or maybe it is: Hannah learns how to say all the syllables in "Dalai Lama". She has been saying her d's and m's and just recently her l's! She figured out the d's a week ago Thursday, I believe it was. Since then she has let out a couple of the cutest cries of "daddy!" you can imagine. She isn't associating that with me yet, but it is still adorable. She says it in this sing-song voice, really high-pitched and draws it out.

There is so much more that I want to get down! Hannah has started to give us kisses too! She can't pucker, so if she wants to kiss us she will grab our face and open her lips a little bit and plant a sloppy one right on our cheeks. All these new interactions are so amazing! It's all small things that she is learning, but their importance to us is immense.

Hannah has started to imitate us much more now. She does it with the new sounds she can make, but other ways too. She is waving more, at appropriate times even, and frequently lets out a soft high-pitched "hiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaa!!!" when we say "hi". I was having trouble feeding her breakfast the other day and so I decided to have fun with her in her little Bumbo seat instead. So we went back and forth banging on her Bumbo seat tray. I'm really enjoying the simple things in life so much more.

I did not enjoy getting pooped on this morning, however. Partway through reading "One Little Monkey" Hannah seemed to get a little more lively and happy. After I finished the book and picked her up, I found that she pooped while she was sitting in my lap. Oh joy! Somehow when I was taking her onesie off the poop trailed up her back and I ended up having to rinse off the back of her hair. Bummer. Other than that today has been pretty great. We have been a little too relaxed with taking pictures lately, so I'll try to take some more soon.

Also...I just realized that today is Friday. Not sure if I will get any factoids up. Oh - here's one. If human babies were proportional in size to polar bear babies (as adult humans are to polar bears), then they would be about the size of a golf ball. To those of you who have given birth: did you ever think you'd be jealous of a polar bear?

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Nap Time

Miss Fusspants has not been excited about sleeping lately. I suppose Miss Fusspants is never excited about sleeping, since I reserve the name Fusspants for such occasions. I don't know if she is teething or something else is going on, but man! She will get sleepy and rub her eyes, followed by getting upset with whatever she is doing. Done jumping? YES! Done with everything else? YES! Ready to sleep? YES! In your crib? NO!

We've been trying to just put her up there and let her go to sleep, which used to work, but now she wants to fall asleep with us holding her. Heidi and I hope she is just teething again, but maybe not. It's these times that give me boob envy; if she's really fussy, Heidi can just feed her and usually that does it. Not for the James! Hannah has taken to sucking on my shoulder, and then when it doesn't give her milk she bites and tugs. I tell her no, mostly for Heidi's sake. There we go...no more boob envy: biting and tugging doesn't sound like so much fun.

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Deciding on a post title is hard...

...when you haven't posted in a while. It seems as though I have more trouble giving occasional updates than short everyday blurbs.

So here is what Hannah is doing. She is being 7 months old today! Unfortunately we didn't have quite as much milk as usual and her schedule was thrown off, so she was on the fussy side for her 7 monthiversary. She never fusses when I hold her though, so I guess things could be worse.

I'm getting frustrated with reading to her since the only thing she wants to do is chew on the book, which I guess makes sense, but we're trying to teach her not to do that. Maybe the key is to read her bigger books (in terms of page size), so that she has more trouble getting them up to her mouth. I'm afraid that if I keep pulling the book away from her then she will associate books with suckitude. No, baby Hannah! Books have rockitude if anything.

Hannah is also working on standing up better by herself, but no crawling yet. She was scootching her butt up for a while and so far hasn't gotten past that. I really need to give her more tummy time, except she has never enjoyed that. Not one bit. Time to make her suffer through it, because life is hard. Never too early to pressure your kids into catching up with their peers!

I am starting to think that she is getting the concept of rhythm, which is really pretty cool. Not very many animals can do that. If you think about it, rhythm requires recognizing a pattern that has occurred, is occurring, and that you believe will continue to occur unchanged. She can predict the future! Which is totally why we had a kid to start with.

Heidi is starting to talk about cutting Hannah's hair. I am firmly against this. It is so cute! And so are her little ponytails!

Hannah and I have been doing this cute little thing where we put our heads together and touch noses. She likes it so much that she has been doing it with other things too. Things that are not gentle like dad. I suppose she has to figure out that she can't smash her face into everything at some point. Again, life is hard! And so is the exersaucer!

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Swim Lessons

I can't believe that it is already time to post about Hannah's first swim lessons! Unbelievable! Given her enjoyment of bath time, we expected to have a little fish on our hands. What we did not take into account was that when presented with something new, she just stays cool:

She was the youngest in her class by a couple months, but was not at all afraid of the water. Usually in her baths, if she splashes herself in the face she will just blink a couple of times, look at us, and go back to playing. Pretty much the same thing happened. Here is a little more cuteness:
Swim lessons are going to be every Saturday for a little while. It kind of makes me miss swimming, and got us talking about how I should start working out. I don't really feel like I have a place in my schedule for that, but it's a good habit to start. At any rate, I got a new pair of shoes out of the conversation. It was about time, since I was wearing the pair that I bought in 2002, and they were starting to look a little worn out. 

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Happenings of Late

One thing I have enjoyed about writing this blog is that it gives me a time to reflect on what has been going on in my life. I was thinking about what to title this post, and it took a while to remember what all had happened in one week. Too much for a concise title apparently.

Looking back in two years, I would probably be able to come up with: Hannah was 6.5 months, I was her father and a grad student, and Heidi and I didn't see each other much. Good job future James! You are correct, but missing the fun details.

For starters, over the weekend we went to my parents' house. We picked up one of my aunts from the airport the night before and drove her as well. My aunt and uncle from Rhode Island along with their kids were also there. Kind of a bit hectic at first. My Dad was set on canoing and kayaking (not contemporaneously for any one person, although that could be interesting) and shortly after arriving I found myself in a canoe with my cousin. Dad, I know I set this bookmark up on Mom's computer, so I would like to reiterate something: "Yes, it is shallow and moderately rapid" is not an internally consistent response to the question "Is it a good river for canoing?". Perhaps "No, it is shallow and moderately rapid" or "Yes, it is deep and slow" or even "Yes, it is deep and moderately rapid, but there are no trees hanging over the river into which the rapids try to pull you." Or maybe we already talked about this. I guess all that to say, I have never, never accidentally tipped a canoe. Before last weekend.

I think we still had a good time. The rest of the weekend was a bit more relaxing, and I came home well fed. The above photo is Hannah and I relaxing in their backyard. Here is Hannah chewing on Heidi's sweatshirt string:

Then on Labor Day we went over to our friends' house. They have a beautiful 10 month old daughter, Jade, with whom Hannah was delighted to play. There was also a 1 year old boy there, but he was too busy using his new found walking skills to be caught by the camera. Jade was kind enough to try to share some cracker:

I love the next picture, since they both look like they're posing like gangstas.

Jade: Why you gotta be frontin'? You want a piece of this?

Hannah: Wazzup wazzup!?

They make a pretty tough posse.

In other news, Hannah has graduated to the big bathtub. She seemed to really enjoy herself.

A little note for us to look back on:

Hannah is learning to clap. The waving that she learned a couple weeks ago really is waving - she's just selective with the timing. Last week she learned how to hold things in both hands at the same time and to hit them together.

That should do it for now. I would like to leave you with a suggestion to check today's Dinosaur Comics (number 1548). Why would we ever start calling them intestines instead?

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Daddy's Bad Idea

Heidi and I were cleaning up on Sunday and moving some furniture when Hannah filled up her diaper (messy kind). So I asked Heidi for some help, and we headed upstairs. Usually when we change her poopy diapers, it ends up squishing out the back. This time it hadn't gotten up her back yet, but it was primed and ready with a big pocket of it caught at the top of her diaper. My logical conclusion from this was: "Let's change her standing up."

Genius!

So we took all her clothes off and wiped her butt clean. Heidi asked me to hand her a cloth diaper insert to put under her, in case she peed. That's in case Hannah peed, not Heidi. And she did pee. And Heidi was ready for it, except that she wasn't. Instead of holding her over the changing pad and the cloth diaper insert, she held her over the carpet.

I guess it might not have been the worst idea, if it weren't for the pee. Anyway, it was at least humorous for those involved.

In other news, Hannah has been super cute lately. Although that's not really news, it's more of recurrings. So in recurrings, Hannah has been super cute lately. She has started to make shrieking sounds when she inhales, something I taught her with a little imitation I like to call "The Raptor". Previously, the raptor has been involved in all sorts of goings ons, most eventfully the breaking of a towelbar at my parents house. I can't do the impression too much, as it hurts both my vocal chords and my nipples. Go ahead and use your imagination, Mr and Mrs Interwebs. Hannah always thought the raptor noise was pretty funny, then she started to imitate the sounds. So we had raptor conversations, except toned down. She was adorable trying to get it right; at first she would just inhale really slowly and maybe eeck out a sound or two. She got it under control pretty quickly though, and now we can go back and forth shrieking at each other. Neat! She has also been learning that she can make all of her sounds quieter, so we have been treated to some soft coos and beautiful seranades. I have been intending to get a video of some of this, so perhaps soon.

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Factoid Friday: The Amazing Echidna

So I heard that the blog was pretty good and mostly amusing, except for Factoid Fridays. Well, my friends, learning is totally fun too! Especially when the learning involves echidnas! And exclamation marks!


Echidnas are basically a hodge-podge, mash-it-all-together of mammal/bird pieces. Or, to science it up, they are a deep branching lineage that split off close to the common relative of all mammals, birds and reptiles. It's evolution, baby!

What makes echidnas objectively the coolest thing ever, rivaled only by the platypus (the echidnas cousin of sorts)? For starters, they look like an anteater and a porcupine got into some weird Dr. Moreau kind of romance. Check out this hairy guy holding a balled up echidna:

They are mammals, but they lay eggs like birds; after laying the egg, the female echidna deposits it into a pouch (like kangaroos), where the young continue to live after hatching. They also don't have nipples, but have two pores on their chests out of which their young can suckle milk. To make the young even cooler, we call baby echidnas "puggles". To top it all off, male echidnas have a four-headed penis. Two of them are useless, and they alternate using the other two, depending on which was used last. That, dear reader, is weird enough to put them at the top of my crazy animal list. I hope that made Factoid Friday more interesting!

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Ironic

I know Hannah's morning schedule now: when she gets sleepy, hungry, fussy, etc. So after we listened to some music I took her upstairs for her nap. Apparently she prefers to get her exercise behind bars. All of the exercise that we try to get her to do on the floor she saves for her crib. She rolls over and scoots around like it's no big deal, makes the sounds that we try to get her to make, and then just looks up and smiles. After about 20 minutes of confirming that she can make the sounds "mmm" and "mmmbuh", and is capable of rolling both ways, turning herself around, and getting her foot in and out of the crib bars, I took her out and put her in her exersaucer. I thought maybe she was getting a little hungry and after food would take a nap. Please notice the word "exersaucer". Not even two minutes later:

After spending half an hour trying to get her to sleep I then had keep waking her up throughout the bottle. Hopefully the extra food will at least mean a longer nap. Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with her, but this dad still needs to shower.

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6 months!

Hannah was 6 months old yesterday! I have said "I am amazed" enough times now to realize the amazement will be continual. Heidi snapped a couple of pictures of her playing with her bear before bedtime and I made a little stop-motion movie from them:

I think it would look good looped.

I intended to include the below quirk and update in my previous post, but it was starting to get a little long. The additional quirk I have to describe is not quite as weird as the belt or the belly slapping, but we really get a kick out of it.


She loves to fall asleep with a blanket over her head. And when she is ready to fall asleep, it's like her lights out switch. Playing, playing, playing, blanket over face, asleep. It's almost instantaneous. Of course, this means she can't have a blanket for her whole nap. We wait until she falls asleep and then take it from her, for obvious reasons. It has become ingrained in her now for nap time. The other day we were listening to music at the kitchen table as Hannah was getting sleepy. She was holding her blanket, sitting upright in my lap, and I looked down as she was pulling the blanket up over her face and then lights out! as she fell asleep right away, leaning back into my chest. I expect it when she is lying down, but sitting up too?

The update is this:



taken about a week and a half ago, the same time she started waving. She seems to forget how to wave sometimes, but that's ok. She also forgets how to stand when we do this with her. Her love of bouncing tries to come through, so she just bends her knees and drops. We are cultivating a love of gravity; she loves to fall over when she is sitting too (if we catch her in time). That's about it for now; the little one just woke up.

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The quirks continue

So I have been wondering how long someone can blog about their kid and keep it interesting. The answer is: longer than a month and a half! Hannah keeps doing all sorts of new (and sometimes weird) stuff.

Heidi worked today from 2-7, so I watched Hannah in the afternoon and evening. I did not like this as much as the morning shift. Her feeding schedule was a bit different, requiring two bottles and some food. More importantly, I wasn't quite on top of my game. Take this picture as an example:


I don't think I have ever covered her in food quite like that. I love this next shot, and despite what it looks like, I made it through the evening without drugging either of us.

needed that sweet potato fix

I guess that is not technically true - I did give her some Tylenol when I thought she was going to rip her teething toys apart. Anyway, she is so covered in sweet potato because she has developed this neat little trick where she grabs the spoon to help put it in her mouth, then wipes all of the food off of it into her lap, then puts it in her mouth and chomps on it for two minutes. Sure, sure I know you can't expect the baby to not get a little food on themselves. I mean this looked intentional. It was grab the spoon, wipe it off, chew on it. Rub hands in hair, repeat.

Understandably, I followed the food and bottle with a bath. This was my first solo bath. Well, not my first solo bathing, but I think you get the drift. So I got myself a little nervous about it, and proceeded to fulfill my low expectations. For starters, she hated it, which is rare. Bath time is one of her favorite things. After a pretty crappy job of both keeping the baby happy and washing her, I got her out. Usually Heidi coordinates this with having a towel ready, etc, etc. That's not the way this dad does it. For some reason I thought hugging a slippery wet baby and then grabbing the towel was a better way to go. The towel that I picked up and realized wasn't really a towel. It was a blanket. Not a thick fuzzy one, just a thin cotton blanket. Apparently it wasn't just me: Heidi did the same thing before.

I followed this with putting her on our bed with a real baby towel underneath her. I grabbed a onesie before I bathed her, which I was proud of, and used my special technique for onesie application, which I am also proud of (and it's baby approved!). I noticed some sweet potato around her mouth; somehow I forgot to wash her face. But something else wasn't quite right..."Do babies wear underwear? I don't think so. I guess this must be right? But that looks uncomfortable. Do they really not wear underwear?...oh yeah, they wear diapers." So I took her upstairs to grab a diaper, and on the way almost got us smacked by the ironing board I knocked over. Phew.

Baby correctly dressed and intact we headed downstairs, and I set her in the exersaucer so that I could grab a glass of water. She started screaming when I got a few steps away, so I stopped and looked at her. There was some music on (Le Vent du Nord) and I started to keep time with the music, just kind of tapping my belly. She liked it. So I slapped my belly in time to my favorite Quebecoise folk music. I slapped my belly until she fell asleep, right there in her exersaucer. Didn't take long.

I'm starting to get concerned. She laughs when I hit her with a belt. She falls asleep when I slap my belly.

HEY!!! I'm the first person on the internet to use the phrase "I slapped my belly until she fell asleep." You can google search it with quotes if you doubt me.

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First Milestone

Dear Reader,

We are approaching 1,000 hits. That is most excellent! Perhaps you should see if you have that honor (the counter is small and in the lower left hand corner). Instead of doing a real post while Hannah is napping today, I have chosen to do some linear algebra review. That's exciting for both of us! Someday I would like to know enough math that I can come across a problem in my research and say "Aha! I know how to solve this!". The other approach would have been to not spend hundreds of hours trying to learn math that I might never use. Suddenly I am less motivated to review linear algebra. Time to keep on keepin' on!

Until next time,
Bob "the Tomato Tornado" McGregor

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Let's talk about...

...spiders. I am somewhat of an arachnophobe. Sure, I recognize that it is an "irrational" fear. That's why I don't want to pass this fear of spiders onto Hannah. Heidi isn't the biggest fan of spiders either, so we have come up with a plan. It will go something like this:

"AHH! I mean...hmm...there's a spider over there. Do you see that spider Hannah?"
"Yes."
"Good. Now some people are very scared of spiders, but that is just silly. Don't you see how small it is? Now we don't want you to be scared of something silly, so to make sure that you aren't, you get to go and kill that spider."

I really don't think that we have any alternatives. Probably about a decade later, Hannah will be busy, and I'll come running into the room saying "Hannah there is a spider!". She'll ask me to kill it because she is doing something else. And then our horrible little secret won't be a secret anymore.

The topic of this post was prompted by the spider in the corner of our bathroom, right over our shower head. It had it's latest victim wrapped up, hanging there. I generally can tolerate those bathroom spiders for a couple of days, since they eat up the tiny little gnats that sometimes get in. I don't kill them until they do something really creepy. Like move. But this one went over and sucked on it's liquefying victim.

Just think if spiders were closer to our size. Something that could trap you in a web, wrap you up and turn your internal organs into goo that it could then suck out, all the while you get to relax in a super creepy hammock.

In closing, my "irrational" fear really isn't. I still think getting Hannah to kill the spiders might be a good idea.

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First poll

There is a little card on my counter which is advertising a fight, I believe. The front of the card says FREE VS UNDIES PANTY any color. There is also a picture of a butt, probably because either free or undies panty will have theirs kicked. So here is what I want to know from you.



Who knew that Victoria's Secret was trying to break into a new demographic by advertising fights!?!? Pretty zany business plan if you ask me. You can be for lovers or for fighters, but certainly not both.

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Back to reality

Turns out I really like my usual, every day. Last week was a good halfway closer to insane than I already am. I left every morning at 7:20 and got back every night at 11. All of the in between was spent doing the following:

1. Grab a sterilized toothpick.

2. Poke it into a Streptomyces colony on a plate.

3. Streak it out onto a new plate.

4. Repeat 2400 times.

Not included are making the plates, drawing lines on the plates and labeling each spot, and circling and labeling all of the Streptomyces colonies. It made me think a little about what it means to be a grad student. I think the main difference between grad school and a job is that you are a grad student. It's not what you do from 9-5; it is who you are. There's an "outdated" notion of suffering for your science. I put quotes around outdated because it is talked about as outdated, but still expected.

Anyway, I don't like complaining too much (especially since I designed the experiment for which that was part one), and I'm pretty sure that's not what you are here to hear. I'm just your tour guide to the life of Hannah. So let's get down to business. A lot has happened in the past couple of days.

Hannah has started to wave. This has been in the works for some time now, and she was probably making some attempts a week or more ago, but it's hard to tell a first wave from a little spastic arm movement. Now she's really waving. Or saluting. It's kind of a hybrid. She started out by waving at our friend Jesse, and followed that up with waving at my lab-mate Florence. Not us. We have waved at her at least 20 times a day for a month. It makes sense, I suppose, to say hi to people who are new, as opposed to people you see almost every waking second. We have gotten waves out of her since; however, so have the dogs. And strangers walking by. And her exersaucer. She's really getting into this waving thing. This morning I was walking around with her as she was getting her first bit of sleep fussiness. I felt like an assistant on some Miss Baby America pageant. She would look at something and do a little wave. Jolt her head around to the other side and another wave. We'll call her Miss Sleepy Beauty. If you would like a better feel for what it looks like, then do the following (don't worry, your webcam isn't on).

1. Hold your arm straight out to your side.

2. Bend at the elbow, because that's the only bendy part of your arm.

3. Hit your forehead and snap your arm back into place.

In other news, she also has two teeth now. Her middle bottom teeth have started their ascent. She's been a real champ throughout this whole teething thing. I would have demanded much more Tylenol than she did. Now that I think about it, perhaps that is related to her other new hobby, YELLING REAL LOUD. Not when she is upset. That might even make things easier. She yells when she is happy, or when she wants you to look at her. It is really pretty cute at home, since she does it to the dogs a lot. In the exersaucer or her jumper especially; the dogs walk by without going up to her and she lets out this "aaaYYYAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!". If she were a little more coordinated, it would perhaps be followed by a bit of kung fu. It's more noticeable when we are out. She's happy most of the time, even when we drag her to whatever it is we want to do. Last week Heidi, Hannah and my mom (who took over my Hannah-watching duties) took me out to dinner as a break from work. My mom and I sat across from Hannah and Heidi. If my mom and I would talk to each other, Hannah would look at us and "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!". I mind this a little more than Heidi; I'm bordering on obsessive when it comes to bothering other people in public. Then this past weekend we went wine tasting with a couple of friends. I was driving, and Heidi can't drink more than a glass of wine because of breastfeeding. So we went around carrying a baby and watching other people taste wines. Which made the screaming baby feel even more awkward for me.

"Will either of you be tasting today?"

"No, we're just here because what high-brow wine-tasters don't love screaming children? It's a happy scream, by the way. Shouts of joy are the perfect pairing for that dessert wine."

We had a good time. Hannah did too. And it seems like the people who are decent and I would respect don't mind happy children. Maybe it turns out that the ones who get mad about happy babies I don't mind pissing off. Hannah waved at them anyway.

I'll have to get up some pictures soon. We probably got one or two good ones out of the day.

Also, in closing, the Trojan ad that I saw on the sidebar makes me question how enjoyable I am making parenthood sound. "Don't want this to happen to you? We can help!"

Note added in clarification: I don't pick the ads, they are chosen automatically based on blog content.

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Workin'

Super busy week. I just started work on the project that will make up the majority of my thesis, and the first part means loads and loads of work all at once. My mom was kind enough to come and stay for a couple of days to watch Hannah while Heidi is working, so probably no more updates for another day or two.

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Dad's Eye View

Hannah's been a fussy teether, so getting her to take the naps she needs (and we need!) has been harder. I just happened to have a camera by me after getting her to fall asleep a couple of minutes ago. I was holding her while we listened to Ludovico Einaudi; if you haven't heard him, then you should check it out. He used to write soundtracks, but now writes music in a similar style, pictures not necessary. It makes your life feel like a movie. Which means when the music gets intense, you can't help but feel like something is about to happen.

But I'm sure you kept reading because you know there is a picture coming:

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Amazement

I am absolutely amazed at how Hannah progresses in leaps and bounds. Perhaps this would not be so noteworthy to someone who has not been through this process, but just four and a half months ago we were excited that Hannah could follow us with her eyes. Two days ago she just had her first tooth push through, which she then used to mao down on some sweet potato; she even prefers to hold the spoon herself! Also, how is one supposed to spell mao down? I wanted to write "mow down" but that looks like mow the yard, but mao just makes me want to say chairman. Which reminds me of an awesome name for a cat: Chairman Meow. Like I said before, I already know that I have junior high math teacher humor.

Hannah's latest enjoyment comes from screaming - long and loud, followed by a nice big smile. She doesn't do this as much for me, but when Heidi is home I get phone calls with background noise that sounds like a cross between an angry cat and a happy baby.

Apparently this post is also partly about cats.

Anyway, I am trying to procure a video of this, for the Interwebs' enjoyment. Also, daily stills are apparently anything but daily. We'll see if a second one is ever produced before deciding on a name.

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Wouldn't you know...

I think "I should update the blog, Hannah has been taking a mighty long nap." I open this window. Hannah says "WAAAHHHH!".

Best be going now.

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The park

Since it is Tuesday, I will quickly finish off what happened on Saturday. We went to the park with some friends and Hannah was cute (see figures 1, 2 and 3). The end. Figure 4 has been added as supplementary awesomeness.

Figure 1.

Mother and child, self-portrait. Supports hypothesis of perpetual cuteness. I will term this state "in cutituity".

Figure 2.

In this figure, Hannah is laying in the grass. Sometimes figure legends are that obvious.

Figure 3.

The author, apparently practicing baby Tai Chi. Appreciate her unity of form with that of the dog.

Suppl. Figure 4.

This photo was shot just when Sam was saying "When I'm on istockphoto and I see close ups of flowers, I always think 'Who takes close up pictures of flowers?'." 

Now he knows. I like how the focus is on the tips of the closer petals, making it look 3d. Also, apparently I was wrong about the Cntrl and - to zoom out; it doesn't work on all browsers, so if not for you, then sorry. Use the fox that has caught on fire. Also, why has no one put him out? I just realized how cruel that is. Perhaps the next version should be called snowfox. That sounds kind of sexy.

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Garden

Hannah really loves flowers. Heidi and I have enjoyed walking through gardens together since we first met, and have been lucky enough to be at two universities (for undergrad and grad) with excellent flower gardens. Saturday morning we brought Hannah to one and walked around for quite a while. Hannah fell asleep. Heidi carried Hannah. I took loads of photos. Here are a couple highlights:






We had a phenomenal day for it. Later on in the day we headed to a park with some friends. I'll try to throw up some of those photos later. Sorry for these short posts. I feel a little edgy, waiting for the baby to wake up any second. No real commentary for now, just some nice photos.

If you would like to see a higher quality version of the photos, just click on them. Then if the browser has zoomed in too far, you can hit Cntrl and - at the same time to zoom out.

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Tidbit

Heidi just reminded of the following conversation:

"Heidi!! Come in here."
"What?"
"Hannah is laughing!"
"What are you doing?"
"Hitting her with my belt."

Before you call child services, let me explain. She was laying in her pack and play, and I was on our bed, peaking over at her. She really enjoys the pack and play, and will stay in there for quite a while with toys and a blanket, and likes when we interact with her that way. So I was making faces at her and we were blowing raspberries at each other, then I grabbed my belt, which was on the bed, and hung it over the side, waving it back and forth. Then I just pulled it across her, and for some odd reason she liked it. So I was just moving the belt back and forth in the pack and play, tapping her with it (hitting perhaps conveys the wrong meaning), and she thought it was great. It wasn't a full on giggle fest, but we got a couple laughs. I was as surprised as you.

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Lots and lots

Busy weekend, with literally hundreds of photos taken (>400), so there are a couple of things that I would like to post about today. I am going to try to split them up so that I can actually get things posted, since Hannah's nap schedule is shortening by the day.

Perhaps the least exciting item (for once) is a new food - peas. We switched from avocados because Hannah held onto her serving long enough that we called the doctor. She was literally grunting almost constantly for three days. Then...skajooosh! Glad I wasn't home for that. Hopefully she gets through the peas a little quicker. Like this afternoon, after 2.

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Outfit

This, my friends, is called an outfit and is something of which I am very proud. It's not that I really have trouble dressing myself (although I have noticed I care less now), but I just didn't think it really mattered too much what Hannah wore. Who is going to come up and say "Your babies socks don't match. She is ugly. And you are a terrible person."? Babies are the definition of cute. This approach was not well accepted by my wife, especially when I would drive Hannah to meet her at the end of her workday, which she would follow with meeting friends. "You don't like the strawberry onesie with blue pants, and socks that are different colors, sizes, and even intended for different seasons? We were in a hurry."

At any rate, I have been trying. And now, for any similarly uninterested gentlemen, allow me to walk you through the above clothing choices.

I do not always enjoy dressing Hannah in pink. You understand why. I also cannot always find the bows that we use to avoid questions like..."Boy, right? - oh, well, that's what people assume when a baby has on blue." While green does not avoid this problem, it's not blue, and strangers take offence to baby girls in blue, as if you did it just to make them look stupid. Also it has a giraffe and lion on it. Who doesn't want their daughter to also love giraffes and lions? I'm sure this shirt is currently influencing her and her career choices - maybe someday I will get a safari out of it. That being said, I'm not sure how I feel about the message. Are giraffes and lions supposed to be friends? I find this doubtful, so then we can assume that they are supposed to be your baby's friends. This is perhaps even more troublesome. But that's not the important part - we're talking about matching clothes here.

So we have chosen a shirt. Green pants would be a mistake for several reasons. If they were exactly the same color then your baby becomes a little blob of green. Which is ok for Mom to do, if it is pink, but we have already ruled that out. If they don't match perfectly, then you end up looking like you tried to match them and failed. Yellow is far enough away, and I saw yellow pants within two seconds of opening the drawers. And here is the crucial part - there is yellow on the shirt. This means that baby goes from wearing clothes to having a cute outfit. You might be asking, this means something? Indeed. This means that Mom gets to spend her afternoon hearing "That is such a cute outfit!" instead of Mom saying "Her Dad dressed her." And Mom appreciates that, more than will ever make sense to you.

And I was just about to hit "Publish Post" when Heidi called to tell me what to dress Hannah in. APPRECIATE THIS!!

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Factoid Friday: Thou didst not know?

According to my wife, I am full of it. It here refers to little bits of information that I collect in a manner similar to our house collecting pet hair - it gets shed in my vicinity and sticks around. So in thinking of regular features for the Micro Observer, Factoid Fridays came to mind, for two reasons: alliteration, and it is one of the few things I'm good at which might be interesting to the outside world.

This is a lot of introduction for a little factoid, so here it is.

The pronoun "thou" which has since died out everywhere (except some churches that believe biblical scholarship reached a pinnacle in 17th century England), was the informal way of addressing someone, compared with the more formal "you". I find this surprising because language generally becomes more sloppy as time goes on, and if I had to guess I would have chosen the informal version to win out. For those who know or remember studying other languages, "thou" would be comparable to "tu" in Spanish, French, and Italian, and "du" in German. "You" would be the counterpart to "usted", "vous", "Lei", and "sie", respectively.

So then for those of us who are familiar with church hymns (or scripture) in which God is referred to with "Thou", this is actually not a sign of respect, but rather of familiarity. Since I referred to King James earlier (King James Version), I'll pass along my favorite tidbit about him (it's a two-for-one Friday!). After Queen Elizabeth passed James the crown, the people of England found fun in joking about his effeminate nature: "Elizabeth was our king and now James is our queen."

On a different note, Heidi has suggested to me that the daily stills be tri-weekly stills, which doesn't quite have the same ring, but I believe she may have a point. I hope this does not push anyone to tears.

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MOHAWK!

Heidi tried giving Hannah a mohawk after her bath the other day. I thought these pictures were hilarious and post-worthy, especially juxtaposed like this. Technically I suppose this would count as a faux-hawk, but I doubt that any fashionistas read the Micro Observer (although I am sure they would love it, love it, love it!). Anyway, putting up the post title made me curious as to whether or not Mohicans wore mohawks. It turns out that they did, or at least something roughly similar, but only when they went to war. Braves would shave their head, excepting what was termed a scalp-lock, which would then be greased with animal fat to get it to stand up. In my roughly three minutes of Google searching, the best explanation I found was that this amounted to something akin to a "come get me if you can" gesture to the opposition tribes, as it would provide a handle for cutting off the brave's scalp if he were to be caught or killed. Supposedly, the middle finger stems from a similar wartime gesture coming from English long-bowmen. I've heard the French would cut off the middle finger (and perhaps the index too) to prevent English soldiers from firing the long bow, leading to Englishmen holding one or both of those fingers up prior to battle in the same spirit as the Mohican scalp-lock.

I certainly hope Heidi's intent was somewhat different.

Rather than leave you with talk of removing body parts, I'll leave you with this picture of Hannah and I. She just looks too cool not to show this to the Interwebs. I don't know where she got it.

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First Daily Still

We almost didn't take this photo yesterday. I remembered when Hannah was looking like she was asleep, and Heidi was about to get ready for bed. Then fate intervened. It is apparently that important.


I can already tell that this is going to change our lives. I for one am already more motivated to shave and to get a haircut, before I end up looking like '80s Mel Gibson (you can click on it if you doubt I'm on my way). I'm not sure, however, if this is going to be anything more than keratin removal motivation.


I wonder if we can get Hannah to alternate between arms up and down. Then putting them in order might make her fly. Also, we don't usually put a bow on Hannah as part of her pj's. How any passersby are supposed to make out her gender in the middle of the night, I just don't know.

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IT'S ON!

I gave my wife some pretty good advice this morning that I thought you could benefit from, Mr. and Mrs. Interweb. If you are ever in a meeting, or any other tense situation, and you do not know what to say, stand up and say "IT'S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG!". The next move is up to you, or perhaps up to the person with whom it is on. You may be saying, "But James, this is completely ludicrous; how is that appropriate for anything with any degree of gravitas?". I say, the more intense the situation, the more on it should be, and the more Donkey Kongish of the on-ness is necessary. If you continue to disagree, we may be forced into a situation where "IT'S ON LIKE DIDDY KONG!", but only because we're friends. Perhaps I have read too many webcomics and drank too much coffee this morning.

Oh yes, that reminds me - Grandma is watching Hannah today so that I can get work done. So we should rap up this pep talk. But wait! There is reason to check back later. Since Hannah was born, I thought it would be neat to take pictures of her as close to every day as possible. Then last night, I thought that a photo of the family every day, in the same spot, would be neater - perhaps even wicked awesome (do people still say that?)! I am keen on this idea! So tonight will be the first of many. Then perhaps by the time it would be visually interesting to put them all together in a video I will have enough web savvy to make it so.

"IT'S ON LIKE PRINCESS PEACH!"

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It's like day and night

Things I said this morning:
I'm sorry. Is the dragon not making out with you?
You pooping? Need help?
Are you growling now? I really hope you're growling.

Things I have said so far this evening:
I should probably take these poison gloves off before I touch anything else.
I don't think my k-means clustering algorithm is working right.
He was off by a factor of 10; no wonder everything died the first time (fortunately only bacteria die in this lab).

I really love my work, but I definitely miss one half of my day more than the other.

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must...not...laugh

Things are always funniest when you can't laugh. I can't read Dinosaur Comics (click here for my favorite) while holding a sleeping baby. This Notes from the Trenches post just made me wake up Hannah. It reminds me of when I was an undergrad in a lab researching herpes. My nose would start to itch like crazy right after I screwed the top off the vial of virus. I really wanted to itch my nose, but not with a herpes hand.

I think the worst bout of forbidden laughter I have ever had was in church. I was sitting with a friend's family, whose mother was exceedingly kind, but who was to be taken very seriously and was not to be crossed. It happened to be the end of a very odd several months, during which taking communion gave me butterfingers. The previous two times I had spilled it on myself; I don't know how, it just happened. Anyway, it happened a third time. On a new white sweater, which was just too much. And we lost it, laughing almost uncontrollably for several minutes during the most solemn part of the service, while Mrs. Coolbutstrict did all she could to keep her dignity and tell us to shutuprightnoworyouwillbesorry. It was the kind of hnnn.. hnnnn... hooo.. spespespespespespespe... hnn... hnnn laugh that almost sounds like you are alternately struggling to breath and blowing mini-raspberries. We couldn't stay quite for more than five minutes for the rest of the service.

I can't wait until Hannah is in junior high.

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Thief!

Turns out that being a dad has made me into quite the shifty character. Stealing from my child has become a regular occurrence. Sometimes even twice a day! I don't know if it makes it any better that my victim is always sleeping.

The victim:

The loot:

The failing guard dog:

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AVOCADO!

Hannah was not impressed with rice cereal. Avocados came highly recommended from mostly everyone, so we jumped on the bandwagon. Hannah loved it! I'm sure it will be the first of many bandwagon rides; I will cherish this one all the more knowing there are other rides with names like "High School Musical" and "Hannah Montana". I hope those come with vomit bags for parents with weak stomachs.

Anyway, apparently she was ready for food, just not gruel made with breast milk. Here is Hannah's seal of approval:


She decided that she liked this food thing so much that she should try putting everything in her mouth. Including the camera. nom nOM NOM!


The avocado kind of makes her into a baby version of the Hulk, you see. So we cleaned her up, because a baby Hulk is really not a baby at all. And then canceled out the Hulkiness with some pigtails. Her first! Here for you to see, Mr. and Mrs. Interweb.


Nothing says Hulk-be-gone quite like some pigtails.

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Comfturble

If a blog isn't the right place to mention this, then I don't know if there is a right place for it.

No one says com-for-ta-ble the way it is spelled. Everyone says comf-tur-ble. I propose that comfortable is replaced with comfturble. The word comfturble even looks more comfturble; comfortable seems a little too uptight to convey the appropriate meaning.

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The Moby Warrior: Posture of Silence

Today the Moby Warrior takes on sitting down with a baby who fell asleep despite teething.

This is another downfall of the Moby, sitting down is not easy. So if your two favorite things are sitting and putting things in the oven, then you might not need one. In fact, I wouldn't recommend children either.

It goes something like this. Pull out the chair that has been tempting you. Bend your legs like you are an overworked person playing a game of limbo against your will, and you haven't had time to exercise for the past X months (we'll pretend like that shouldn't say years). Given the topic of this blog and that you are reading this, you may well just need to bend your legs the best you can. But only bend at the knee, your thigh and torso have to stay aligned (hence the limbo part). Now put your hands on the back of the chair, and do something resembling a crab-walk until your center of mass is somewhere over the seat. Crab-walk forward, and lower yourself onto that cushion. Your posture is perhaps not what it used to be, but neither are your standards for most other things involving civil society. Well done. I hope you brought that cup of coffee with you for some nice over the shoulder drinking. Don't worry about burning the little one; by the time you get to this point your coffee is cold anyway, and you're too lazy to go fill it back up. Enjoy!

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Teething

Who knew that my skills in putting females to sleep would finally pay off? And I didn't even have to talk about my research!


Also, teething can bite me.


Until the tooth shows up.


Yes, I already know that my jokes are like your high school math teacher's.

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Guys! Happy July 22nd!!

I am so glad that I was reading Dinosaur Comics today. It is Happy Pi Approximation Day! Now where's my pie so that I can rub it around my face? Success is much less (ful)filling when it is approximated.

On second thought, is this holiday only celebrated in countries that write dates day/month? Because 7/22 means nothing to me. And 22/7 means pie in the face. Another reason to move to Canada.

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Big day for a little girl

Hannah has been holding out on us. Here we've been trying hard to get her to roll over, knowing that most babies can by now. She has had all the parts down, rolling to her side, going from side to front or back, etc., but doesn't connect them all. We've also been trying to get her to sit up on her own, but she thinks the only reason to sit up is as a launching position; all the better to fly back and crack open ones head. Then yesterday, she rolled over when I was at work. And then I came home, and she decided it was time to sit up. We kept the Boppy pillow behind her, as this is still a dual-purpose sit/launch position. She didn't need the Boppy to sit up, but found it quite comfortable.

Then she started chillin'.

We were quite surprised with all this progress at once. Rolling over, sitting up, and chillin' all in one day? And if that wasn't enough, she decided that the Pooh quilt made an excellent yoga mat. Here she is in a little pose she called Supta Matsyendrasana.I wonder what she's going to do today.

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The Moby Warrior: Baking Scones

Putting on a Moby wrap feels like getting kitted out for a martial arts class. Then you put a baby in it. But I am now convinced that if there were to be a stay-at-home dad superhero, he would be wearing a Moby wrap. I didn't have very good luck the first time that I tried it out (when the name Moby Warrior was born), but it has aged and is more forgiving. Thank you Master Moby.

So a few days ago I got it on, got the baby in, and cleaned. Then it was time to bake. I don't know why it was time to bake, it just was. We didn't have any yeast, and my wife isn't the biggest fan of soda bread, so I decided to make scones. Chocolate chip scones! I still don't know what made it time to bake. I had just cleaned the kitchen. That's already a lot for me. But baking? And then cleaning? Again?! This Moby Warrior dude gets serious. Notice that the baby is already asleep, despite what looks like a very ferocious yell.

Turns out scones are pretty easy to make. I'm usually more of a cook than a baker. Despite what you might expect of a scientist, I'm terrible at following recipes. Baking requires precision that I only reluctantly give my lab work. Somehow the Moby Warrior managed to pull off some decent scones.

And then ate one with his favorite five month old.

At this point I have to recommend taking the baby out before trying to get anything in or out of the oven. That must be the Moby Warrior's kryptonite.

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