Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Apropos of nothing















Another of Dear Alex's overwhelmed-on-her-first-birthday faces.
Note the fabulous hat, the menacing camera. She really did have a good day - but there sure was a lot of stuff going on. Beautiful Wife and I are pretty quiet people, and I can't help wonder if we should socialize her a little better by routinely making a lot more noise around the house. Then again, I kind of like the quiet, and I think she does, too. It helps her concentrate on all the learning that's going on right now. Dear Alex certainly can make noise when she wants to - she has a shriek that can peel paint (There is a reason we call her lil' screamie)

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Two years ago today



















Beautiful wife became beautiful wife. I'm a lucky, lucky man.

Monday, September 04, 2006

The thing at the top of the stairs


















I have yet to understand her fascination with climbing stairs - in her ordinary life, there aren't any, so the only place she gets to experience them is at the undisclosed location. Today we climbed the stairs four times. She starts at the landing, shouts "up!up!" and commences the climb. If I was less than 3 feet tall it would seem to be an awfully long way up, but with Dear Alex there's no hesitation, never a slip - the only trouble comes at the top, where the Big Scary White Thing lives. Big Scary White Thing is just one of those round bamboo and rice paper lanterns, like 2 feet in diameter that sits at the top of the stairs, for no reason other than I'm too lazy to find another place for it. For whatever reason, Dear Alex is frightened of it - It crinkles occasionally, and moves a little bit from the wind from her favorite thing, the ceiling fan.
She gets to the top of the stairs, then stops. Eyes firmly on Big Scary White Thing, she sidles sidways then crawls rapidly past it, then stops and looks back as if to make sure it's not following her. I've tried to introduce her to this thing a few times, but it always ends in tears. Perhaps if I was a better dad, I'd move it, but I'm also a little curious as to how this relationship is going to work out. She's had no fear of anything else in this house, and has gleefully poked and prodded and chewed every piece of furniture, electrical outlet, cord, drawer, door, and icky-thing-on-the-floor in the place - what magical property is keeping the Big Scary White Thing safe?

Light!

Happy birthday part 1


























What can you say - it's a roomful of babies, with their own agendas, busy with their own explorations and discoveries - the expression "herding cats" comes to mind, but even for someone that doesn't generally like babies, it's pretty darn cute. By the time we got to the cupcakes and party hats Dear Alex was more than ready for a nap. Her first taste of sugar went over very well. She loved the icing on the cupcake and ended up wearing a lot of it. A good time was had by all.

Splashy-splashy


























Great fun on a summer afternoon when you're almost one - splashing around in a wagon full of water with dad and Beautiful Wife. Thank you uncle S. and aunt T. for the wagon, she loves it!

1 year - one week



























The weekend before the big first birthday - Dear Alex with Beautiful Wife practicing her bandy-legged-saggy-butt walk in the great outdoors with her favorite pushy-thing toy. It's a great, simple colorful plastic cart vaguely reminiscent of a Mars rover - no hint of anthropomorphisation, no eyes or smiley faces, just wheels and a handle - At last, good industrial design for baby. It works, she loves it.
(No sound chips or lights, either!)

Back, more or less.

Haven't been writing nearly enough of late, as I've begun working again (which is great news ), and It's really thrown the daily lazy summer routine out of whack. We've also been ramping up for the Big First Birthday Celebration, which has now come and passed without any major bumps - Now Alex is one, and it's been quite a year of development and change for dear baby, beautiful wife, and myself. Naturally, the one-year milestone calls for a retrospective, and a replay of how we got here from there, but that'll take some time, and a lot of thought -
A year ago beautiful wife and I had no idea of just how completely our lives would change. Everything we read, heard, and the ridiculous pre-birthing hospital classes that we dutifully took did absolutely nothing to prepare us for the awesome force that is New Baby. The amount of time and energy it takes right now, to be with her in the now, watching and helping Dear Alex learn about the world is exhausting - not in a negative sense, but it does seem all-consuming at times. She's a very busy little girl, babbling, touching, exploring. But, lots of pix to come, for sure.