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.

Biting

Sofi's been biting while nursing for the past few weeks. Our attempts to "punish" the behavior - stop nursing for a while - have been ineffective. Enough's enough: time to wean her.
Since Sofi used to snack on and off all day, this is kind of tough. What we're trying today is everytime she asks for milk (the one sign she knows, and to her it doesn't mean milk-from-a-bottle, it means mommy milk - shame that the one thing she knows how to ask us is going to always be met with denial) we give her food instead. So far, it's been going great, and she's been willing to accept the surrogate. Of course, it's only noon.

Learned to dance before I could walk.

Just like the Abba song!

Well, actually, seems like she's learned both more or less at the same time - she was bouncing to the Black Eyed peas (she has rhythm, I swear!) and from there realized she could take little mincing sidesteps...and then some tiny real steps.

We have steps.

Sleep

I expected I'd be getting full nights of sleep by now. Now that it's been more than a year. But I've been going to bed at 11 or 12, and Sofi gets up at 4 or 5, so no. Overall, total, yes, but that break in the middle. And then I have no energy in the mornings.

And sometimes - like now - I stress out. "If I don't get to sleep soon, I'll only get such-and-such hours of sleep!"

Last few mornings, trying to sleep through the 4 AM crying. Gave up this morning. Sofi wins again.

Which is fine, really, co-sleeping in the morning is a pleasant family feeling.

Screw it. Guess I'll get up and write a blog entry.

Sofi can't get enough cheese

One thing she likes to do lately is feed us - she'll stuff the cheese in our mouths whether we want it or not...

One Year

Haven't written in a while. Brain dump:

Sofi is one year old as of 11/27. I should go back and read through the blog archives. Her grandparents (on my side) were down for Thanksgiving and her birthday - and she seems to hate them. She cries when they hold her; she doesn't play the "giving game" with them - in fact, when she gives me something and I hand it to her grandma she'll immediately snatch it back and give it to me again. If I persist in handing the item off to grandma, she'll start to get upset. Hoping this will pass with more exposure. We'll see them again at Christmas.

She's starting to amass a small collection of toys - nothing compared to her cousin, but more than enough. She likes balls and musical instruments. (One toy, where if you put balls in receptacles it plays music, is a real winner.)

She's starting to show some signs of language - she makes the "milk" sign all the time, now - we think she thinks it means "mommy", because that's who she gets when she makes it. Started giving her cow milk yesterday when she made the sign and noooo that's not what she meant. Words I think I've heard her say include "ball", "book", "turkey", "zoo". We've also taught her how to stick out her tongue and say "ah" - recorded some video footage yesterday of her holding a car adapter like a microphone and singing "ah" into it.

Recording video is a pain, by the way. Unlike photography which is more fire-and-forget, with video you've got to download it and edit it and it's a bit much. I'll record video when she's extremely cute but that's about it. I do somewhat regret the purchase of the camcorder.

This morning, when she was trying to put a baby food lid on a yogurt container and getting a little frustrated that it wasn't working, something occurred to me. I always imagined we start out seeing the world as it really is, and as we get older we grow filters and make abstractions and turn the world into symbols. Like, when we're young, instead of seeing "table", we see this brown wooden platform-and-legs shape with a grainy texture. *The Scientist In The Crib* says this isn't the case, but it didn't really hit home until I saw Sofi trying to put the baby food lid on the yogurt container. It seems like, to her, "baby food container" and "yogurt container" are the same - so why can't she take the lid from one and put it on the other? It's like we're born with the abstractions and it's not until we're older that we start noticing refinements. Which is why at first we draw stick figures and it's not until later that we can draw people with thickness and lighting and so on.

Baby Bach

Baby Bach is like heroin. I've never seen Sofi sit so still for so long with such focus.

One word we're sure she knows the meaning of is "Kiss" - she will kiss us on command, now, although she prefers mommy. Maybe because of my beard.

Hit the zoo on Friday. Whoops - turned out it was Veteran's Day. Crowded. Funny thing about being unemployed, you don't know which days everyone else has off too. Still, after we got through the line outside, it was fine. Sofi seemed to like it, babbling happily as the day wore on.

shake

Sofi's learned to shake her head no.

A natural progression, I guess, from turning her head away when we offer her food...

daylight savings time

Remember when I said that daylight savings time was great because it helped me fit to Sofi's schedule?
Well...
Why can't it be year-round?
Sofi's waking us up at 4:30 AM now...

And the Good News Is...

I haven't forgotten how to surf!

It's been over two years. First there was some construction on my condo that made it a real pain in the ass to get my surfboard down to the car; then it was my daughter. (Daughter + Job + Surfing > Total Available Bandwidth, but Daughter + Surfing < Total Available Bandwidth.)

Only caught four waves today, and they were crappy waves at that, but I caught them, and they were mine, and you can't take that away from me.

And I'm so excited by the news that I've posted it on both my blogs! Since I think most people either read one blog (parents, wife, non-industry friends) or the other (game industry friends) I'm doubling up.

Sounds Like...

A Choking Hazard!

One nice thing about our laminate floors - I can be looking away from Sofi, reading a book or something, and identify by sound that she's somehow got her hands on a choking hazard and is playing with it. (That sounds like one of Cathy's tiny refrigerator magnets! That sounds like one of my six-sided dice!)

Walking

Sofi took a couple of shuffling steps towards mommy today.

My reaction was, "No!!!!"

She's so *cute* when she's crawling.

And if she starts walking I won't be able to call her "floor monster" anymore.

Weird how I can't wait for her to learn to talk and sign but I don't want her to ever walk. Maybe it's because I value brains more than athletics? Or maybe it's just pragmatics: if she can't walk she can't get into as much trouble? Or maybe it's all about the cuteness.

Sofi Likes Pesto

Spaghetti with pesto. She's really chowing it down right now. Mmm, basil, garlic, olive oil. Is that healthy for babies?

I've noticed a pattern lately - if I think what I'm feeding Sofi is kind of gross, (peas, pureed squash) she doesn't like it, and if what I feed her is good (pesto, applesauce, biscuits) then she does.

Which is weird, because when I was her age I didn't like the stuff I like now. Maybe I'm sending her unconscious signals.

Bedtime, Sharing

Our bedtime ritual has settled in at about 1 hour and fifteen minutes. The ritual looks something like this, and usually happens shortly after dinner time:
1. bath (we put the tub that Nick and Catherine gave us in the kitchen sink...it fits in there snugly, and that way we don't have to bend down and kill our backs washing her in the bathtub)
2. dry her off and take her into the nursery, where she nurses--hence the name--while listening to "Bedtime with the Beatles" - a bunch of Beatles hits turned into orchestral lullaby things
3. we turn the lights down about halfway through the CD - barely light enough to read
3a. she sometimes falls asleep during this step, in which case we go straight to step 5
4. I take her and rock her in the rocking chair, in the dark, while a windup Eeyore plays Braham's lullaby.
5. Into the crib: got this whole technique down, where I gradually lower her, and then use my right hand to support her head so I can pull my left hand out from under her neck. She sometimes wakes up in this step, in which case:
6. Gently hold her arms steady - otherwise she flails around and gets upset. If I hold her arms, she'll immediately relax and eventually fall asleep.

One thing we've been noticing lately is that she likes to give us things. Food, pieces of paper. Then she wants those things right back. She's practicing sharing, I guess.

Adventure

Sofi and I went off for our first solo adventure today. Mom wasn't feeling well so I took Sofi to a party in the afternoon. It was just us. She cried a little here and there, but mostly she seemed okay with the mommy-free party. We were only gone for a couple hours, but not a bad first step.

Sick

Sofi didn't used to mind being sick - snot would be running down her face and she'd be as happy as a clam.

Not anymore.

Not happy.

In other news, to distract Sofi from trying to break my keyboard, we found a spare computer keyboard and let her play with that one. It's one of her favorite toys.

New Record

Yesterday Sofi stood up for 33 seconds unassisted.

Yeah Baby

Sofi was very good on the flight back from New York. Probably because Cathy would nurse her whenever she got uppity - we rigged the blankets on the armrests and meal tray to create a kind of tent or shower curtain for modesty.
Right now she's crying, though, because she got used to sleeping with mommy and daddy, and now she's alone in her crib, and I got a spasm in my back trying to soothe her and gave up.
And I will not feel guilty about that, damn it!
Other random milestones: she learned to crawl up stairs; she learned to pull the back off the remote control and take the batteries out; she learned to push the plastic cork in on her pig toy; and she took her first drink from a sippy cup today. (Up until now she just gnawed on the end, not really getting it.)
You know, sometimes she can be trying, but most of the time I just want to gloat. Look what an awesome kid *I* have.

New York, New York

Well, Long Island anyway.
Yesterday we went to the Riverhead Aquarium: it was Sofi's first sighting of live sharks, lobsters, rays, monkeys, humuhumunukuapuaa (I think that's what they were...), emus. It was her first viewing of a piranha feeding frenzy; and mine too. She seemed to really enjoy it. She cried hardly at all, anyhow, and was always looking around interested at stuff. There was one shark tank where she grabbed the railing and didn't want to let go...I think she liked holding the railing more than looking into the tank, though.
Today she learned how to crawl up steps. She knew her mom was somewhere upstairs, and I followed her as she made her way up a whole flight.
While on vacation, we're co-sleeping again. You know, when your wife takes too much of the bed, it's no problem, you just shove her over or hit her with a pillow or whatever, but when your baby takes too much, you're screwed. Not getting a lot of sleep on this vacation.

I did it!

I fixed my enter key.
Whew.

The Fragility of Laptop Keyboards

Sofi just gave me a lesson in this. I thought it was so cute that she was playing with my laptop! (Even cuter is when she plays with the desktop, because she'll switch back and forth between mashing the keyboard and playing with the mouse. It's like she's been watching us and learning. Now why can't she learn sign language? I thought she had learned "more" once...I even posted about it...but haven't seen her reliably reproduce it since then.) The flight to New York was okay: she slept on the way up - slept for a good hour and a half, in fact - was quiet for most of the trip - and then got bored. Cathy didn't get to watch the inflight movie (Mr. and Mrs. Smith) because Sofi demanded her attention. We held her on the way down. If you're wondering why there are no line feeds in this post, it's because that's the key Sofi pulled off my laptop.

The Will to Diaper

Man, sometimes you know you gotta change her diaper, but you just can't quite bring yourself to do it just yet.

Cathy's worse than I am, though: she knows that if she lets it go, I'll break down and do it before she does. It's sort of a game of diaper chicken.

I don't want to be remembered as one of those dads who never changed the diaper...and I'm not around during the day, so Cathy definitely ends up changing a lot more than me in the long run anyhow.

Freakonomics and Mocha

Cathy's been making me these frozen mochas in the morning before I drive to work. They're so good.

Freakonomics is the best parenting book I've ever read. The statistics say that very little we do makes a difference, but that who we are (succesful, educated, book-owning, English speaking, half-Asian couple with a normal birthweight baby) does. Kids can watch all the TV they want, even. They didn't factor in breastfeeding, though...guess we better keep that up, just in case.

For the Record...

Thad's the first person I heard use the term "mimetic desire."

Smart

Sofi got smarter overnight: today she learned the sign for "More"; she also figured out how to work the volume knob on the stereo.

Ok, I'm lying about that second thing. I told Cathy that Sofi worked the volume knob and she said, "Yeah, she does that."

Still, about time on that sign thing. We've been trying for a couple months now. (Ok, we started too soon, I admit it.)

The Ironic Thing Is...

it's the *handle* of the mug that isn't microwave safe, and therefore gets the hottest in the microwave.

Ouch.

Da Da

Sofi just clearly said "Da da", twice! I was thrilled!
Then she said, "Da da da". Then she paused, and added, "Da."

Fence, Cheerios

Just got the Evenflo "Wide Spaces Swing Gate" - and discovered you need to be something of a hardware person to install it.

I'm not a hardware person. I'm a software person. I seem to be missing that segment of y-chromosome that makes most guys handy-men. Reading in the instructions about drilling and stud finding fills me with ennui.

Returning it and getting something plastic that installs itself.

We're having Sofi eat cheerios now. Watching her try to get the cheerio in her mouth is...well...funny. Not laugh out loud funny but definite entertainment. I myself have eaten a whole lot of honey-nut cheerios in my life...but both honey and nuts are potential babykillers, so Sofi gets the plain kind.

Face, Books

Cathy says I make a face when I'm feeding Sofi solid food - as the spoon goes in her mouth my lips curl - it's a challenge, you know, trying to get as much food from the spoon to her mouth as possible: it doesn't surprise me I put some kind of gamer face on. I can't seem to stop it.

Sofi's got a new past-time, which is crawling over to the bookshelves and pulling all the books off the bottom shelf. She particularly likes to tear up this old Theodore Sturgeon book - I wouldn't mind, except it has the short story "Need" in it, one of the greatest short stories of all time. I've moved that one to a higher shelf. Sans cover. And sans the last ten pages or so. Still, "Need" is intact.

And, oh God, she's just so freaking cute! Is she really my daughter?

Crib

Now that Sofi can stand up, when I go to get her out of the crib in the morning she's always standing, her arms over the railing, which is nestled in her armpits.
Good thing we lowered the mattress.

Porn

Sofi was playing with the remote and came damn near to ordering "Young Girl Fantasies 2.7" on pay-per-view. I suppose because she's a young girl.
So we have to figure out how this channel blocking stuff works already? At 8 months?

Cancer

The difference between going to a PPO dermatologist vs. a HMO general practicioner for a body check is night and day.

HMO GP: "That doesn't look like anything to worry about."

PPO Dermatologist: "I don't like that at all. Let's treat that."

HMO GP: "You look clear. Your moles aren't raised are strangely shaped, really."

PPO Dermatologist: "You have a lot of dark moles - let's biopsy the scariest looking one. You better come back in a month."

A couple friends at work have been hit with skin cancer lately, so I was motivated to get checked out. That, and, as I mentioned before, I'm trying to prolong my life...since my cholesterol is good, I figure car accidents and skin cancer are the most likely things to kill me right now. So, me, I prefer the catastrophizing money-grubbing PPO to the get-the-Hell-out-of-my-office-I'm-not-making-any-money-off-you HMO. But that's just me.

Cathy Blogs

I could blog about how the tooth and crawling are official and real now, but Cathy's already done it, and she just gave me permission to share her blog: http://paper-cat.blogspot.com/.

I will continue to insist that there was never a clear line between no-tooth and tooth, and there was never a clear line between not-crawling and crawling. At some point we agreed that, yes, she's definitely crawling now, but we're not sure when it crossed over from spastic floor wiggling to actual crawling-type-crawling.

Another "milestone"

I'm not sure about that tooth I mentioned the other day. She was crying yesterday and I got a pretty good luck and I didn't see it anymore.

Today...maybe she's babbling...I think I'm hearing "mamama" and "lalala" but maybe it's just "ah ah ah"...

Again, it seems like there are no milestones, only these gradients, and at some point we arbitrarily draw a line somewhere....

Tooth

I just noticed what I'm 90% sure is a tooth poking out - her lower right incisor, I think. Just a tiny little white dot on her lower gum. I noticed because she bit my finger and I felt something rough. Cathy doesn't believe me. I tried to show her, but Sofi didn't like the "being at the dentist" feeling as I'm holding her head straight and sticking my fingers in her mouth. I'm not sure if it's technically through the gum yet...maybe there's still a thin layer of gum over it. She's remarkably happy for someone who's teething...

Inflection Points

I always assumed there'd be a clear line between stages of childhood development: one day she wouldn't be grabbing, one day she would; one day she wouldn't be crawling, one day she would; one day she wouldn't be babbling, one day she would. I'm beginning to realize these things come on so gradually it's possible to miss them. She got more and more grabby, little by little, and one day we realize she's grabbing all the time...when did that happen.
And on the crawling front, she doesn't crawl exactly, but she makes forward progress by wriggling, like a soldier with his kneecaps shot off crawling up the beach. Sometimes she even gets a leg under her and gets that extra boost, or does a push up. Cathy claims it is crawling, and wrote it down in her journal. "First crawl." I don't know, myself. One day I'll notice that she really is crawling for sure, but I won't be able to pinpoint the exact day it started.
I imagine speech will be the same: did she just say "Hi"? Or was it just a random sound?

Bedtime Ritual

The parenting book I'm reading now is pretty anti-Ferber, and it's guilted me out, so I try to put Sofi to bed easy at night, rather than just dump her in crib and walk away and let her wail.

I've got a whole system - I rock her in the glider chair in the dark while a wind-up Eeyore plays Brahms lullaby. Usually, she nods off before the lullaby is even over, or soon after. Holding her arms still against her body helps. Then it's a process of ever-so-slowly getting her from chair to crib. I let go of her arms. I wait 30 seconds. I adjust my grip so I can carry her. I wait 30 seconds. I stop rocking. I wait 30 seconds. I slowly stand up - she's very sensitive to vertical changes. I take her to the crib and slowly lower her - the hard part. I leave the gate open for this part, so I don't have to lower her too far. Lowering her is much more likely to wake her than the click of raising the gate. Usually she wakes up in the process of trying to lay her down and get my hands out from under her, but usually she nods right off again. Then I slowly raise the gate--the click usually makes her twitch, but she doesn't wake--and make my escape.

Tonight didn't go so easy.

If she wakes up on the dismount, I can usually rock her body, holding her arms against her stomach with one hand and her head with the other hand, and she nods back off again, and I can let go. Not tonight. She woke up and stayed awake. All right, back to the rocking process. This time, after more rocking and final nodding off, as I was lowering into the crib, her pacifier came out, and fell on the floor. Do I find the pacifier or just raise the gate? She didn't wake up, so I go for the gate. Bad idea. The click wakes her, and she notices the missing pacifier. I find it for her but now she's wide awake. She's not crying though. Sometimes we can just leave her in the crib awake and she doesn't complain, so I give that a shot and go for the door. Nope. Cry. So I come back and resume the rocking process again. This time I'm extra-careful, introducing a new step in the process, the "Get a good carrying grip that you can also easily extricate yourself from once she's down" step. The step doesn't wake her. Good. Once she's in the crib, she does wake, but only for a second. I win.

All told, it took from 8:30 to 9:30.

Hope it's not going to be like that every night...

Awww...

Cathy put up more photos.

And the official new food of the week is Trader Joe's Organic Applesauce.

Or do kids need the pesticides?

And The Official New Solid Food Of The Week Is...

Banana! Sofi seems to prefer it to rice cereal. Unfortunately, after we give Sofi her mashed-up small portion, neither of us particularly want to eat the rest of the banana, which just goes to waste.

Looking forward to introducing avocado.

Rockstar, Dream

Sometimes being a parent is like having your own personal groupie. The squeals of delight and paroxysms of joy - sometimes when I sing to her - transfer immediate rockstar status. I'm going to miss that when she grows up and realizes I'm not cool.

I dreamed she started walking and talking, all on the same day. And it wasn't just 'mama' and 'dada', it was a bunch of words and the ability to put some of them together to create additional meaning. I guess this means I'm impatient to get on to the next stage, which is weird, because I'm really enjoying having this ticklish groupie.

Time Marches

We tried giving Sofi her first solid food today and she seemed to take to it nicely. Rice cereal. Cathy tasted it later and said, "It's good! It's sweet." Yes, that means she tasted her own breast milk.

Since Sofi's solar powered, I'm much more aware that the days are getting longer than I used to be. "Isn't it dark yet?" and "She's awake already?"

I better go to bed now. She'll probably be up at five. Just have to finish the Blitzkrieg level of Freedom Force vs. The Third Reich.

What's that sound?

Sometimes, when Sofi's been crying for a couple of minutes, and we haven't gone to check on her, Cathy will ask, "What's that sound?"

Funny every time.

Spaghetti, Dream, Angsty Music

Sofi was complaining about being in the Evil Chair so mom picked her up and continued eating dinner. Something we do a lot without even thinking about it. Then Sofi grabbed a handful of mom's spaghetti. Mom gasped in startlement. I started laughing - the image of Sofi with her hand in mom's spaghetti was pretty funny, trust me. Then Sofi started crying. Not clear if it was because mom gasped, I laughed, or the spaghetti sauce was too hot. Her hand looks ok.

Last night I dreamed that a friend who lived in the same hotel as me had a sick baby: the back of the baby's head was this orange cottage-cheesy gunk and the baby had bloodshot eyes. The pediatrician made a house call, and turned out to be none other than Frank Miller, the comic book author who reinvented Daredevil and Batman and created Sin City. Later, after curing the baby, Frank Miller turned into Harlan Ellison and we went out looking for an arcade so we could play the arctic level of Halo 2. Astute readers will note that in real life I don't live in a hotel, Frank Miller is not a pediatrician (nor is he Harlan Ellison), and that there is no arctic level in Halo 2. Dreams. Huh. Interesting to us, boring to everyone else. [Correction: there really is an arctic level in Halo 2. I forgot. Maybe Frank Miller is Harlan Ellison...]

All my music is angsty, and it's been a while since I've listened to any. I gave Nine Inch Nails a whirl yesterday and found that I was having trouble relating to Trent now that I'm a happy family man. Marilyn Manson, on the other hand...who doesn't get a lift out of listening to the rousing choruses of Antichrist Superstar or Irresponsible Hate Anthem? "I wasn't born with enough middle fingers!" Rock.

Scrubs

Dr. Cox's wife: Isn't he an angel?

Dr. Cox (reaching into crib): Yeah.

Kid stirs.

Dr. Cox's wife: He's waking up!

They both duck and hide under crib.

You probably have to be a parent to get it. Cathy and I laughed a long, long time.

Other than that, Scrubs is getting kind of weak? The last two episodes weren't all that.

In other news, Sofi is showing mimetic desire. I'm reading *Mindful Parenting*, and she's grabbing at the pages. I try to give her another book (*Brave New World*, if anybody cares), and at first she's happy with that (although the pages are less resilient - *Mindful Parenting* just crumple, but *Brave New World* tears) but then she wants *Mindful Parenting* again.

Fuck

I should stop swearing in front of Sofi:

a) now

b) before six months

c) before twelve months

d) before two years

e) after two years

f) never

Discuss.

Heritage

I just discovered that swedish pancakes are easier to make than pancake-pancakes. No buttermilk (and no lemon in regular milk for fake buttermilk), no baking soda, no baking powder. My latent swedishness surfaces.

Theory of Slut Clothes

While out walking with Sofi, Cathy and I passed a teenage girl dressed somewhat provocatively.

"Sofi's going to dress like that, you know," Cathy said.

I actually think we're covered, historically:

60s: miniskirt.

70s: Bell-bottoms.

80s: the Madonna look. Underwear outside the clothes.

90s: Nirvana. Flannel. Layers.

00s: Spears, Aguilera. Underwear outside the clothes again, only more so.

So I'm pretty sure slut clothes are an even-numbered decade phenomenon. Sofi will turn 13 in 2017, so she'll be wearing grunge plus plus.

Coming soon: more half-baked theories.

Poison, Smart, Bedtime

A couple days ago I left Sofi on the couch for a moment and when I returned discovered she had somehow gotten ahold of mommy's bottle of Proactive, cap off, and was mouthing the side of the bottle. Some of the Proactive had spurted on the couch. I thought we didn't have to worry about that kind of thing until she was crawling.

Stupid theory for the week: maybe our society becomes so body conscious because we keep telling our babies how cute they are. At a very young age they learn to place an inordinate value on cuteness. No more! I've started telling Sofi she's smart...with very little evidence so far to support that claim. "Who's a smart little baby? Who's a smart little baby?"

I'm the official put-to-bed person in the family. I enjoy this role. I read a story, then cuddle her in the glider chair in the dark while a wind-up stuffed Eeyore plays Brahm's lullaby. Getting her from the chair to the crib is the tricky part. The last two nights I managed to do it without any crying at all. Rock.

New Stuff

Day before yesterday Sofi made a few kissing noises. I was the only witness. Cathy doesn't believe me.

Yesterday she discovered a new, more penetrating cry-squeal thing. A hint of chalkboard, a hint of tires on pavement, a hint of Harvey Keitel acting upset. Ouch. Maybe she's teething? It's getting to be about that time.

Cathy discovered a new way to keep her happy without actually having to carry her around the apartment: strap her into the evil chair, looking out the window. She'll sit like that, content, for at least 20 minutes. Beats putting her in front of the TV.