Humpty Dumpty

Why is Humpty Dumpty always depicted as an egg? There's nothing in the nursery rhyme that explicitly says he's an egg.

Sofi was fairly disturbed by the picture of the fallen, cracked open Humpty. She kept turning back to that page and saying "Oh no" and looking sad.

I give up on citysearch

For the third time now, I've tried a top-ranking restaurant on citysearch and been immensely disappointed. How does one find good restaurants, anyhow? Zagat's, I suppose.

Stocks; "Wahvu"

A year ago I pretended to invest in some stocks - if I had really done it, I would have beat the S&P by a factor of two, because one of the stocks was Merck. So suddenly I find myself being one of those guys who thinks they have a system...who think they're smarter than the mutual fund managers and big computers on Wall Street...when really I was just lucky - I had a 50% shot at beating the S&P, right?

Still, nagging voice. Did I have a 50% shot at beating it 2x? I shouldn't have played this game. That's how Vegas gets you.

Something Sofi's been saying a lot, insistently, is "Wahvu" - and she gets more and more upset as we try to decode it. "You love us? You want something? You want food? You want to go driving? You want to be picked up? WHAT?" Any ideas what it means? She won't tell us.

Sofi To English Dictionary, Volume 2

"why" - water
"dan" - dragon
"bobo" - diaper (no idea where she gets this one)
"doggie" - doggie
"woof" - sound a doggie makes
"mow" - sound a cat makes
"moo" - sound a cow makes
"beeeee" - sound a bee makes
"beh" - bear
"guy" - guy
"pee" - pig
"no" - nose
"no beess" - nose beast
"buh-bye" - bye bye
"go" - go
"uh-oh" - uh-oh
"okay" - okay

Not a comprehensive list, just some of the highlights.

Latest Art

Cathy bought Sofi new markers the other day and she took her art to the next level!

"Autumn"

"Surface"


"El Pollo Diablo Surveys the Void From His Parapet"

Hobo Spider (or - I'm Going To Hell)

I heard that hobo spiders were the Washington equivalent of scorpions - so recently when I saw a spider crawling around our home I looked up just enough on the internet to get kind of anxious. This morning the spider was just hanging out on the wall and it looked just like the photos of hobo spiders on the internet. Oh my. But how to be sure?

I captured it under a glass and went to a website on spider identification and it turns out that the differences between the more common "large house spider" and the hobo are barely visible to the naked eye. They recommend a magnifying glass. I tried to tell the difference anyway and couldn't. Then the pdf recommended submerging the spider in alcohol to kill it and make the differences more obvious.

So I did. And, yikes, it thrashed around in there for a while. It was not a pleasant, quick death. It was a knuckle-biting sort of death.

Oh - and - not a hobo spider as it turns out.

So, yeah, going to hell.

Cutest Thing

I make little 'dragon' hand puppets to entertain Sofi - just my bare hand with the forefinger and pinky sticking up - a habit I got from Ed Del Castillo back in college. I open my hand, say, "Where'd he go?" and then make the dragon again - "There he is!" Much delight.

Then Sofi started doing it too! She makes tiny baby dragons with her little hands, and she can't stick her fingers up, and she says, "Wha go?" and "Dereeih!" So cute!

"My kid could do that in five minutes"

Sofi's discovered abstract expressionism:


She quickly moved into pontillism:
These are from her purple period:
Later, her work went in new directions:

More words

"Ein" - onion. I didn't start liking onions until I was in college - although I suppose mom snuck them into our spaghetti sauce and we didn't mind. Tonight she made me hunt for bits of onion in the chili and give them to her, one by one.

She's learned the sign for "I love you", sort of - she can't do the pinky finger. Still, awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! And she's not just mirroring us, I found out tonight. "I love you," I said, without doing the sign, and she did the sign back.

"If you didn't blog about it, it didn't happen."

-Cathy Pascual

Thought we jumped the gun on buying Sofi legos - we went for the 2-and-up recommended Duplo instead of the Quatro - seemed like they'd fit her hands better. She couldn't actually snap them together at first, but she liked arranging them and carrying them around. But just now I saw her succesfully connect one. Woo! Legoized.

She's got a technique, by the way - I don't think she has the strength to snap two together by themselves - she has to set one on the floor, put the other on top, and then press with both hands.

More Sofi Words

"E" - any letter of the alphabet. We can impress our friends by pointing to the letter E in a given word and saying "What letter is this, Sofi?" "E!" Pointing to any other letter ruins the illusion.

"Ashoo" - bless you. She uses it when we burp, too.

We're down to one nursing a day. Almost completely weaned! I'm handling naptime and most of bedtime: there was a while there where I actually had to physically hold her down, or she'd stand up and do her damnedest not to fall asleep. She didn't like it much - she'd fall asleep crying, and then sniffle in her sleep. After a couple days of it she caught on. "You mean if I just lie here I'll fall asleep? Ok." She used to run to mom when I'd say, "Story time!" because she knew it really meant bedtime. Now she's into it, running into the nursery ahead of me. Things are good!

Sofi To English Dictionary

Mama -> Mama
Dada -> Dada
No -> No
Dadee -> Thank You
Ba -> Ball
Mobo -> Motorboat
Duck -> Duck
Cat -> Cat
Nermal -> Nermal (one of our cats)
Bubbo -> Bubble (and maybe also yogurt and apple)
Ey -> Egg
Ishish -> Fish
Shoes -> Shoes
Go -> Go
Mo -> More
A or E -> Letter

No User Servicable Parts Inside

The Dugans gave Sofi one of those ball-popper-walker things a while go. Balls are Sofi's favorite thing in the world (imagine my joy when she was watching me play Kirby's Canvas Curse on my DS and she said, "Ba!") and today she rolled the ball popper up to me and started clawing at the plastic housing, saying, "Ba! Ba! Ba!"
"You want me to roll it around for you?" I asked, and started to, but no, she picked it up and handed it to me again. "Ba! Ba! Ba!"
I knew what she wanted. "You can't have those, they're inside."
"Ba! Ba! Ba!"
So I found a screwdriver and opened the thing up and gave her the little balls.
She was very happy.

Momobo

Sofi really likes the "motorboat" song, where you bicycle her legs faster and faster. She calls it "Momobo" or "Mobo" and laughs and laughs and kicks her legs. Sometimes she'll do momobo on her stuffed animals; today was the first day she tried to do momobo on me, grabbing my toes and saying, "Momobo!" Too cute, it kills me.

Scrapbook Published

Cathy and Sofi are, like, famous: Cathy just got a scrapbook page published in *Scrapbook Answers* latest issue - it's on page 47. She's big time! Well on her way to going pro! More on her blog.

How Sofi eats an orange slice:
* take one small bite
* mash rest in hands, getting juice everywhere
* put mashed slice in garbage
* ask "More?"

Once I've seen Sofi be selfish: our neighbors grandchild wanted to play with Sofi's pushcart-scooter thingy and Sofi took it away from her. But just the other day she wasn't: we were at the children's museum at the mall and she loved the ball machine, but even though it took her a long time of standing in line before she got her own balls, she started giving them to the other kids.

A couple times in a row last week I heard someone say that you're a bad parent if you nurse/rock your baby to sleep and then put them in the crib. You're tricking your baby, they'll be upset when they wake up in the dark, blah blah blah. Screw you people! It works. And I think babies are smarter than you give them credit for: sure, the first night they wake up and cry. Maybe the second night. But after a while they figure it out - "Hmmm...if I'm given a bath and put in my PJ's and fed in the nursery it means I'm going to end up in the crib."

Also, one of the books on sleeping, the one that says "Make sure your baby naps plenty during the day if you want them to sleep well at night", is a crock! My anecdotal evidence is that lots of napping during the day => trouble sleeping at night and little napping => good, long night's sleep. Mark Nau: "The only way to get something published is to say something wrong." Case in point.

Babysitter?

People act like it's easy to find a babysitter. I find it kind of intimidating to find that person you're going to trust your daughter with.
Anybody reading this from Seattle know a good one? jdfristrom@gmail.com

Entertaining Sofi, Part 2

 
She demanded I give her the guitar. But I'm afraid she's just not old enough.

We did get her a new keyboard that she likes, though. Unlike her previous one, which stopped the rhythm track when she pressed a key - it was like it was punishing her for trying to play! - this one keeps right on going. And it can play two note chords! All for $20! Science marches on. 

Entertaining Sofi, Part 1

 
Trying to wean Sofi means I've got to find ways to entertain/distract her when she wants to "snack". I got this idea because I thought I heard her say "bubble." We've gotten her down to four feedings a day. I know, that's not very impressive. 

Just Realized

I never put up a link to my wife's blog. Well, there it is now, on the right. paper-cat.blogspot.com, not to be confused with papercat.blogspot.com, which is something else.

Just Realized

I never put up a link to my wife's blog. Well, there it is now, on the right.

Grass

Jesus grass grows fast - we've only been here two weeks and our lawn's already a jungle. Is that just a thing up here or is it like that everywhere? I've never taken care of a lawn before, really.

Vomit

Twice now we've tried to let Sofi cry it out in the crib and she did to the point of throwing up. None of the books on sleep training say what to do about this. I'm thinking she just wins. We're her puppets. From here on out she sets her own bedtime and gets to sleep in our bed if she wants and there's not a damn thing we can do about it.

Sitting

 
Sofi likes to sit - I guess so she can imitate grown ups - but it's not often you find something just the right height. When we do, she likes to sit on it, stand up, sit again, stand up, sit again, over and over.
This little herb garden outside our house is perfect. 

Aptitude

We're already wondering what Sofi's going to be when she grows up. An artist? When we draw with her she hands the crayons to us and makes us draw. An engineer? When we play on the computer she puts our hand on the mouse and makes us do the interacting. A musician or dancer? Maybe! She loves pressing the buttons on her musical toys and then bouncing and stomping and spinning and waving her arms while the music plays. She's been dancing since before she started to walk, I think I mentioned in an earlier post. I've set up her musical toys in a sort of baby-Rick-Wakemanish horseshoe; she usually only plays one at a time, although just now, this morning, she had two going at once. Very avant garde.
So now I'm imagining that we'll push Sofi into becoming a rock star and then live vicariously through her. You've heard of soccer parents? We'll be rock star parents. Or something.

New Stuff

Sofi's sitting in a half-lotus on the couch in her pj's right now; first time we've seen her sit like that. It's very cute, trust me, but I'm too lazy to take a photo and upload it.

Lately she's gotten pretty good at crawling off the couch - turning around and letting her legs dangle and then sliding off.

She loves to ride in the car: whenever I take her out for a walk she walks straight to the car and pushes against the passenger door. Sometimes I'll give in and drive her around, but she wants mama to come too: if we don't bring mama she'll start saying "mama" "mama" "mama" and get upset.

Sometimes she doesn't want to get out when we arrive at our destination. "No." "No." "No."

"No" is probably the word that she can articulate the most clearly and perfectly. It would be annoying if it wasn't so freaking cute!

Babble

Lately Sofi's babble sounds like a tape recorder in reverse. I'm tempted to record it and play it backwards just to make sure she's not saying "here's to my sweet Satan"...

On My Head Be It

Zoe's become an outdoor cat whether we wanted her to or not; she keeps darting out any open door. We need to get her collared and microchipped, I guess.

Bill told me something like a million songbirds a year get killed by outdoor cats. "On your head be it," he said.

I didn't think Zoe had it in her to kill a bird anymore - she's too old and lethargic, I figured. But while we were eating our chinese food in the backyard today, we noticed that Zoe was playing with a dead canary-like bird, tossing it in the air and then batting it around.

My reaction: Awww...Zoe's first kill in the wild. She's not totally ruined by domesticity.

Cathy's reaction: Aaauuggggh! I can't watch! Get her away from me! Bird killer!

We moved to the front porch and continued eating our cripsy duck.

Deception

We haven't really lied to Sofi much yet. But just today, as she was angling for our ice blended mochas, I thought - hey, since we're trying to wean her (we've started trying again...we tried a few months ago and gave up), maybe we should give her some ice blended "mocha".

Blended her the milk and ice, added just one tablespoon of chocolate (you can barely taste it) and, of course, no coffee. Brought it in, "Mmm...this ice blended mocha sure is good."

"Can I have some?" Cathy asked. And then we gave it to Sofi and Sofi started drinking it up.

"We lied to our baby," Cathy said. "Hey, Sofi, you know that's a 'baby' mocha, right? There, now we aren't lying to you."

Nursery

It required destroying the rest of the house as we frantically upended boxes looking for key items, but we got the nursery to feature complete last night. Key items included a lamp (always did her bedtime feeding with that lamp on), a portable stereo (always listened to "Bedtime With The Beatles" during her bedtime feeding), and a humidifier (we don't even put water in it anymore, we just use it for white noise). They're always in the last place you look.

Happy Baby

Sofi seems to really like it here. More space to play/spin around in. And she likes to walk out into the street, and it's not a problem! Because cars almost never drive on this dead end street. So as long as I'm with her she's safe. Stepping into the street wasn't an option in LA; I frequently had to play defense to prevent her from making a move in that direction. Still, even though I know it's safe up here, I get a tense feeling when we're in the street together...

Ghost

Even though Tony died over a decade ago - he's been dead longer than I've known him - his voice still nags at me, particularly in the supermarket. Old arguments about which pasta or salsa to buy come to the surface. Also when I get up in the morning. "Why don't you just get up?" he used to say, infuriated that I would sleep through class...not because he cared about me missing class; I think he used to lie awake wondering if I'd get out of bed after I shut off my alarm or if I'd just fall back asleep again.

Zen

I used to think I was fairly Zen - mellow, easygoing, patient. It seems that compared to the average Washingtonian that's not the case - the traffic lights take longer to turn here, people in line muse over which coupon in their coupon book to use, everyone drives slower, and my patience is tried. I've gone from being Mr. Zen to Mr. whatever the opposite of Zen is.

The Move Is Done

I don't know what's worse: the stress of moving yourself or the stress of wondering if your mover is going to screw you. Compared to horror stories on the internet we got off light; one of the doors in the old place had the paint scratched to shit ("See? I told you I could get your couch through the door without taking it off its hinges.") and the mover more or less extorted us for money on this end ("Well, I dunno if my truck can make it around this tight turn. It'll be a risk, and if we get stuck it'll cost a lot of money, but tell you what, for $200 we'll give it a shot, and that way you won't have to pay the $780 for the shuttle.") I talked him down to $150. Woo. Bill said, "I can't believe you paid him! You're part of the problem!" Well, I didn't want to get into an adversarial relationship with the guy who had ALL OUR STUFF. I was pretty sure if I called him on it, or called my rep at Allied it would just piss the guy off and then he'd "accidentally" damage all our crap. End result was, as far as we can tell, none of our stuff is lost, and it looks like we've gotten away with under $100 worth of damaged stuff. The way I figure it, the movers just prenegotiated themselves a nice tip, and then did a pretty good job earning it.

Now we just have to unpack.

View From Our House

 
This is the view from the house we just moved into. An "across the water view", Bill calls it. We liked it so much we don't mind that the interior of the house is totally seventies.
In fact, after living there for a day, I've got to say, the seventies feel is actually nostalgic and heartwarming; it reminds me of visiting friends' houses as a kid.
The whole place feels unreal; going from my condo located between a picturesque airport, refinery, and sewage treatment plant, suddenly being surrounded by this - this place looks like one of the "utopia planet" matte paintings from Star Trek or some other science fiction tv show. And looking across the street just looks Brady Bunch or something.
So. So pretty. But so cold! We went for a walk this morning and our ears froze off. A storm blew by, dropped gallons of water on us - right at the moment the trucking company came by with our cars - and then cleared up five minutes later.
Rather than wait for our furniture to arrive (T minus 4 days, still) we just went and bought a mattress, one of these "memory foam" things. Felt really good in the store - we did the "fifteen minute test" that Consumer Reports recommended - but had trouble sleeping. Maybe it was because Sofi was kicking me in the head, maybe it was because we left a light on for her, maybe it was because it's just too darn quiet - used to sleeping next to an airport! And then in the morning achey as all hell. And no coffee - the coffee maker is en route. And from the time I woke up (at 6) and now, when I'm finally drinking my latte (5 PM), it was one thing after another - tried walking to the coffee shop but Sofi got too upset and we retreated; Cathy needed to take a shower; Sofi needed milk; the trucking company said they were going to arrive in fortyfive minutes; had to ferry both cars from the freeway exit to our place; by this time it was Sofi's nap time; she napped for three hours, some kind of record! And finally, here we are.
One last thing: Seattle and Bellevue are a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. Fortunately, all the streets are named after famous numbers, otherwise I might get really lost. 

Blocks

Sofi has a toy where you slide blocks of different shapes into a box with holes of different shapes - you're supposed to match the blocks with the holes. It used to be the only ones she could get in where the cylinders - because it didn't matter which orientation you tried to stuff them through the holes.
Yesterday I was watching her play with it and she clearly Got It - I'm not sure when she figured it out, but now she knows which block goes through which hole, and if she has trouble getting the orientation right, she'll pull back, adjust her grip, and then try again.
I suppose non-parents think, "Yeah, great Jamie, she can put blocks in holes." There's something about seeing your baby do something - anything for the first time that's just so awesome.

History of Game Time

The latest issue of WIRED (still no idea how we ended up with a subscription to this, but now it's provided meat for two blog posts - maybe we should keep the subscription...) has a cool little "Brief History of Game Time" chart. Now, reading the chart, you notice something interesting. Since D&D came out in 1973, a groundbreaking worth-mentioning game came out almost every year--and some years got two or three great games--up until 2002 gave us America's Army. And since then, nothing but new hardware. That's right, America's Army was the last, great innovative game. Before that it was Halo. Makes it look like Greg Costikyan's right and innovation is dead.
On closer inspection, it's just an off-the-cuff chart that someone threw together. World of Warcraft deserved to make the list. If Halo gets to make the cut why not WoW? And where's Nintendogs? The original GTA makes the list with GTA3's artwork, but it's the N64 Zelda that was considered the groundbreaking Zelda?
Out of curiosity, which designer wins? Richard Garriot and Will Wright have two entries each. The winner is Shigeru Miyamoto with Donkey Kong, Mario, and Zelda. Unless you'd give it to Carmack for Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake - he doesn't bill himself a designer but I'd argue that he's pretty much the guy.

Came Across This

An article on attention, which should be of value to you, since if you're reading this you're probably one of those people who scatter their attention too widely (or you're a good friend and I love you for it.)

http://www.scottberkun.com/essays/essay51.htm

Ironic that the only reason I came across this article is because I do the exact thing it warns against…I was talking to Cathy on the phone while browsing the web.

If I was already the man-of-undivided-attention, I may never have come across it. But if I was the man-of-undivided-attention, I wouldn’t have needed to come across it.

I think it’s very important. To say it was like icewater on my spine would be an exaggeration, but I definitely felt *something*. I’ve been living my life like it’s *The Sims* - watching TV, eating dinner, and talking to Cathy at the same time in order to optimize my happiness - but maybe he's right, maybe that really is suboptimal. Instead of extracting full value from any of those interactions I’m extracting a shallow value from each.

This essay deserves more attention. Pun intended.

Mmm...salsa

Sofi learned how to dip chips in salsa just now. She looks so cute; she concentrates/focuses so hard on dipping the chip, and then she puts the chip into her mouth and gets a sort of faraway look in her eyes...
Blue corn chips and mango salsa, btw.

Random Stuff

Seems like Sofi's starting to be social...in fits and starts...a few weeks ago, she was going up to strangers and handing them her stuffed animals - but that only lasted a day, and she snapped back to being fearful of strangers the next day. But at the playground recently, we rode the spinny thing with some girls, and Sofi crawled over to one of the other girls and touched her shoe. Progress.

At the same park with the playground, I showed her how "pill bugs" or whatever-you-call-them roll up in a ball when you touch them. She immediately picked it up and walked off with it - "No!" we cried, afraid she would eat it or crush it or something. But we managed to pry the pillbug from her fingers and save its life.

Brush Teeth

We weren't sure how we were going to brush Sofi's teeth - she pulled away and resisted whenever we got a toothbrush close to her face.
Just handing her a toothbrush seems to work, though - she likes sucking on the bristly end. That's good enough, right? I mean, she's going to lose the teeth anyway.

Whoops

So we took Sofi to McDonald's today, and were peeling the fried stuff off the chicken and giving it to her. She loved it; ate a lot. And drank a lot of milk. And threw up. A lot. Of undigested chicken and milk. "Never coming here again," Cathy said. Sofi seemed unfazed by the vomiting; then I bumped her head when putting her in the car. That upset her. I don't know what happened - I've put her in the car many, many times without bumping her head...so I've been feeling guilty all evening.
Side note - we discovered that dipping the baked apple pie into the sunday makes for instant apple pie a la mode. A taste treat. Too bad we're never going back there.

The word for the day is...

"Smart". Whenever Sofi does something smart, we say, "You're so smart!" and make the sign for smart. In the elevator just now, she parrotted it back to us. "Marrrrrr." She said. And then later, in the bedroom, I noticed her do it out of the corner of my eye. "Marrrrr."

Sign language waste of time?

Sofi just learned how to say "more" yesterday. She's only been signing "more" for a month or two (guess I never wrote in the blog when she learned that one), so it almost seems like trying to teach her sign language was a waste. But it's not, really...the way she says "more" sounds like "mohhhhh" so it's good that she's got the hand gesture to make it clear.

Big Day

Today:

I sucked some food off my finger this morning with a popping sound - Sofi imitated me, right afterwards.

At lunch, she walked down steps while mom held her hands - then she went down a step by herself using the rail post.

I think something 'clicked' re: mouse usage. Reader Rabbit For Toddler up until today, has been pretty much a TV show for her where we click on stuff and she watches. Today she started using the mouse herself and really getting it - she was able to paint the screen and find the animals and move the shapes. Definitely lacking in fine motor control but she gets the idea!

Good Taste

I made the spaghetti alla carbonara extra garlicky / peppery tonight, and Sofi just ate it right on up and wanted more.

Again, she doesn't get it from me! I was a very picky eater at her age.

Already Fashion Conscious At Fifteen Months

Sofi's having a tantrum right now - she found a moccasin that doesn't fit her anymore and when we put her normal shoes on instead she threw a fit.

Also, sometimes she'll bring me a sweatshirt to put on her. And then she'll change her mind and bring me a different sweatshirt.

February In Review

Just noticed I haven't posted in a month.

So -

Sofi is WALKING.

She was taking tentative steps around Christmas, but she didn't really start to walk until later, and now she's toddling at a brisk pace. Every now and then she likes to crawl just for fun, with a smile on her face that says, "I know I'm not supposed to be doing this anymore but I like the variety."

On our morning walk I'll usually take her out of the stroller in the park and let her explore. She also likes to explore on our floor and the garage of our condo, but doesn't like the first floor, even though it has the cool gardens and water features and whatnot.

Sometimes she'll find her shoes and bring them to us and try to put them on her feet. What could she be implying?

She didn't used to notice stuffed animals. Around Christmas that changed - she started getting attached to her Peter rabbit. Now she's fully attached, usually whining unless we give her one or two to play with. Her favorites:
- the Siamese cat she's had since birth
- a tiny bear
- a bright pink pig
- a Pooh she picked out herself at Disneyland
The cutest thing she does with the animals is she'll try to feed them and give them milk from her sippy cup. Then she'll hand the sippy cup and the animal to us, as if to say, "You feed him now." And when we do, she'll laugh.

Speaking of Disneyland - we're planning on moving to Seattle soon so we thought we should take Sofi before we left - VERY crowded, even though it was a Wednesday. Was it Spring Break or something? Maybe we needed this. She didn't have a terrible time, but she didn't really appreciate it, either. We took her on the carousel and the teacup ride and both times she just looked puzzled. "What is this? I don't get it." She has more fun when I toss her in the air. (You know the toss, the you-throw-her-up-in-the-air-but-you-don't-really-let-go toss. I'm not a bad father, really.) She seemed to be really fascinated by the outside of It's A Small World, though, and various other stuff.

On the we're-bad-parents front... Cathy and I make them for ourselves almost every day, and the first time Sofi put mom's straw in her mouth and took a sip we thought it was very cute! "Oh, how cute, she's drinking your mocha!"
And that led down a slippery slope, and now Sofi's a mocha junkie. If she sees mom has a mocha she'll start to bleat until mom breaks down and lets her drink. Chocolate and coffee, great for babies. Mom now has to stealth drink the mocha - wait for me to take Sofi on her walk or whatever and then make one for herself in secret.

Adjustment

Trying to wean Sofi since she was biting Cathy too much. We've been working on it for a month now - just yesterday we decided to stop the morning feeding, which is an adjustment, because normally I'd just get her when she woke up and hand her off to mom and we'd all fall asleep again. Now I'm feeding her, which means waking up at 6 and staying up. Which means she gets tired & upset earlier, which means - what? Earlier nap and bedtime, or two naps? Yesterday we tried two naps, which was fairly effective, but she's kind of used to getting a feeding at naptime, so we're still on three feedings...
We'll get there. Just a little setback.
It's the neighbors - they always clump around upstairs at six, and we're sure that's what wakes Sofi up. Cathy wants to complain but I don't feel right asking them to not walk around their apartment.

Actually, that reminds me of a funny story. The previous upstairs neighbors used to make this loud pounding noise at the ungodly hour of 7:30 AM (I used to get to sleep in to 7:30? Luxury!) and I did go up to complain. His wife answered the door, I asked about the pounding noise, and she said, "Oh yeah, that's Tom getting his leg on. We'll do it in a different room from now on."
I was too stunned to say the right thing, I mumbled something like, "Yeah, thanks, because it's been waking me up in the morning." It wasn't until months later that I was talking to her and said, "You know, if Tom wants to put his leg on, he can do it wherever he wants, really."

A Normal Day

One time in junior high I got obsessed with the idea of having a normal day - a day where nothing even slightly out of the ordinary happened, no class cancelled, no pep rally, no hot dog lunch. This meant it could only happen on a Monday, Tuesday, or Thursday because Wednesday was the hot dog lunch and Friday was, well, Friday.

But something would happen every day - a substitute teacher, illness, something. It went on for weeks. It got to the point where, on the brink of being about to have a normal day, my mom suggested I do something - I forget what - and I freaked out because it would ruin the normal day.

I'm not like that anymore.

I like the google maps hybrid

And since it won't print out by itself, I like doing alt-printscreen to bring it into photoshop to print it out. I'll do it even for places I've been before, just because the nice printout pleases me so.

Too Smart For Toy

Sofi doesn't put the blocks through the block-shaped holes through the lid - she takes the lid off and then puts the blocks in.