Entries Tagged 'Family' ↓

Elizabeth seems to be at a "Love it" stage. And by that I don't mean that she's telling everybody she loves them. She loves stuff. She goes around the house looking at things and saying, "Izzat you coat, Daddy? I love your coat" or "Izzat Katherine's new toothbrush? Katherine, I love your new toothbrush." I have to remind myself that it only gets more fascinating from here. The other night I was reading her a book before bed, and the phone began to ring. Mind you, the phone is three rooms away, so I figured I'd let the machine get it. Elizabeth wiggles away from the book and starts climbing down from the bed. "I be right back, Daddy!" she says. "Where are you going?" I ask. "I be right back," she says. "I get the phone." Sure enough she walks down the hall into the bedroom, gets the phone, and brings it back to me. It has long since stopped ringing, but I go through the charade of answering it because it was just too cute.

Katherine, meanwhile, has begun spelling on her own, although don't tell her that or she'll freak out and stop doing it. As I cleaned the kitchen last night she sat at her doodlepad and would say "How do you spell Mommy, Daddy? What's the first letter." I'd say, "Well, sound it out, what's the first sound?" And she'd say "mmmmm….M!" And before you knew it, with no more coaching from me, she'd spelled the whole word, either from sound from memory, I'm not sure which. She hasn't quite mastered spacial planning, let, and often the first 2 letters of the word will take up the entire paper while the rest have to find space wherever they can. This is particularly charming when she spells her name, which is a very long name with lots of letters, none of which feels in the least obligated to line up next to its brothers. So while she does in fact get down a recognizable version of every letter, it looks like alphabet soup. I love it.

Rumor has it that Brendan is rolling over on his own now, though I haven't seen it yet. So we're playing that relatively cruel game where you shake a toy in his face and then place it deliberately out of his reach to see if he'll stretch for it and roll over. So far, nothing, just a frustrated 6month old wondering why Daddy got so mean. 🙂
He's also teething, which means he's gone schizophrenic on us. His only moods are big toothless grinning at everything and everyone, or screaming himself purple. The latter usually happens at about 3:30 in the morning. Why couldn't we get one of the kids that wakes himself up because he's got the giggles? Oh well.

At 4 and 2, Katherine and Elizabeth might well be at perfect Halloween age. They are very excited to dress up, and look forward to the holiday for weeks on end. Any sort of parties or other opportunity to dress up and show off are very exciting.

When it comes time for actual trick or treating, Katherine starts out strong, walking from house to house and doing a very good job of ringing doorbells, saying "Trick or Treat", only taking the offered amount of candy, and then saying "Thank you." This lasts for maybe an hour before we start hearing, "My bag is getting too heavy to carry, I think it's time to go home now." I know that very soon we will reach the day when she pulls out a map of our entire block and all surrounding streets, checking off each house as we go to make sure we don't miss a single one. But at this age, we actually have to drag her (luckily we had a wagon!) to the last 3-4 houses that are between us and home. Seems like a waste to walk right past houses that are all decorated with people standing in the doors ready to give out the treats. Katherine's not whining or screaming or anything, I mean, god, we wouldn't literally drag the child from house to house just so Daddy can load up on mini Reese's cups. She just spends the last few saying "Ok, is this the last one? Ok, just one more, and then we can go home."

Elizabeth was doing equally well, walking up steps and saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you." Her idea of "offered amount of candy", however, seemed to be "As long as you're holding the bowl in my reach I'm going to keep taking pieces out of it." Keep in mind that, barring M&Ms, Elizabeth does not actually have any candy at all, so this whole adventure is more like "Pick a color and shape that looks interesting." She does very well until…..the dog.
Just the other day Elizabeth had a "doggy scare me" moment, so we're not doing dogs right now. For the rest of the night I had a tiny 2yr old Dora latched onto me like a howler monkey, saying over and over, "No like doggy, daddy. Doggy scare me. No doggies." Which is cute for a little while, but when she doesn't think you're listening she'll pull your face around so she makes eye contact just so you're clear on the whole "no doggies" thing.

And can you believe that there was one lady who not only let her dog run free, but let it jump up and lick the kids? I mean, is this lady completely stupid? Why not just offer them spoonfuls of peanut butter right out of the jar and see which kids are allergic? Surely it's a smarter move to keep the animals away from the kids if you don't know how kids are going to react. Since every other house with dogs did exactly that, I'm going to say this lady was in the minority. Luckily it didn't seem to freak out Elizabeth too much, who actually wanted to touch the dog. But when the next house rolled around we were back to "Doggie scare me Daddy, no doggies."

Brendan just sort of hung out in his Bjorn thingie. I was amazed at the amount of people who offered him candy. The child is 5 months old. He's got exactly 1 tooth. No, he can't have an Almond Joy.

Speaking of which, who are the people still giving out Almond Joy and Mounds? Do any little kids like those? When I was little, I gave them to my dad. Last night, as we went through Katherine's candy pile, I gave them to… my dad. I still don't like the things. I will, however, snag the Snickers when I spot them.

Candy counting was interesting. It was very important to Katherine to count all of her pieces. When I emptied the bag for her she was upset with me, she wanted to do that. Turns out she had something like 36 pieces of candy, which is fairly moot because we just dump hers and her sisters into a big pile anyway.

But then came the "Which ones do I like" pile. There will come an age, I am sure, when the default answer to that question is "If I've never seen it I will assume that I like it unless it turns out to be gross." Katherine right now is in ultra conservative "I only eat what I've eaten before" mode. So she picks out the M&Ms, and the Smarties (good score on whoever was giving out Smarties. Love those.) and the Hershey bars. Anything with peanut butter she shrugs off. All the fruity sugary stuff (like skittles) goes to one edge of the table to ultimately end up in the trash. Then comes the explaining of each piece that Katherine does not recognize. Somehow I translated Kit Kat as "Like a Hershey bar, with a cracker in the middle. Kinda like a Pop Tart." I have no idea how or why I made that leap, but she's into poptarts recently, so that's a score. She seeks out all the KitKats. I try to argue that Reese's Pieces are just peanut butter M&Ms, but the peanut butter embargo is still in force, so none of that. Then I spot a S'more bar and explain that it's a marshmallow candy bar. Another big hit, since she's into marshmallows.

All total Katherine (Elizabeth was long asleep at this point) identified well less than half of her candy as stuff she would like. After that little separating exercise it all got dumped back into a big pile anyway. I'm curious to watch over the coming days to see which pieces actually do get eaten. I expect the enthusiasm to try new things has already dwindled and she'll stick with the M&Ms.

This weekend I was making omelets for breakfast. Elizabeth was first, and her egg had a double yolk. It was a very exciting day indeed. Katherine, who had requested cereal instead of omelet, immediately changed her order to omelet as well in the hopes of repeating the trick, but no such luck. We compromised, I made one omelet and split it between them.

I'm not sure what it means, exactly, but I think Elizabeth might be the next Dalai Lama.

What's funnier, given that I changed jobs about 4 months ago:

The former coworker (former to me — he still works there) who contacted me last week asking when I knew it was time to leave the company…

…or the one who contacted me to ask "Hey, have you seen the sysadmin around? I think the email server might be down."

I'm gonna go with B.

A long time ago I got a book of Buddhist fairy tales for the kids. It's too advanced for them, and it's been sitting on the shelf. The other day Katherine gets it and says, "We never read this one." So we've been reading it. Keep in mind that this is a girl who lately has told me, while reading stories, "Daddy, you have to use your magination. Picture it in your *mind*." With appropriate emphasis on "mind" as she points to her head. Don't know where she learned that.

Although the moral of these fairy tales might be obvious to a grown up, they are a little…violent for little kids. Like the one about the monkey who had plenty of fruit on his side of the river, and the crocodile who convinced him that the *good* fruit is over on the other side of the river, and all the monkey need do is hop on the crocodile's back for a ride. Naturally the crocodile gets to the middle of the river and starts to sink, in an attempt to drown the monkey and eat him. The monkey escapes to tell more stories. But the moral is supposed to be something like, "The monkey knew not to trust the crocodile, but he was greedy to get at the fruit on the other side, and if he was happy with what he had instead of desiring what he didn't have [which turned out to be an illusion anyway] he would have been able to think straight and see the danger."

Translating this into something a 4yr old can understand, I try to make the analogy to the whole "stranger with candy" thing, and if somebody ever came up to you who you didn't know and offered you all the candy or toys in the world you still should know not to go with them.

Katherine tells me, "You know what else it's also like, Daddy? It's like if we were down at the river, and I told you to get on my back so we could swim across, and then we got out to the middle and I told you I was gonna bite your nose off."

You'd think that having spent three days in San Diego at a hotel with free wireless internet, I would have found more time to blog. Well, not if it's a bad hotel. The wireless was indeed free, but the connection was always so very low that I couldn't stay connected worth a damn. So I got very little done.

I've been to San Diego once before. I stayed at a place called the Hotel Del Coronado, and I think it screwed up my expectations. This is one of those places where, when you put in your wake up call, not only does the operator say "Have a pleasant night, Mr. Morin" but there's an actual human who calls you in the morning to say "Good morning", not just recorded music. Even better, the event that defined the standard for me for all good hotel service? When I took my rental car out for the day to go into town, and I came back, the valet opened my door and said "Welcome back Mr. Morin, did you have a nice day?" I mean, come on. I knew when that happened that I'd be talking for years about the quality of service. Look at that, I still am.

So I'd gotten it into my head that all San Diego hotels were like that. When I found out I had a conference at the "Resort Kona Kai Marina", I thought I was in for sometihng special. Nope. Not at all. Totally generic hotel. As I mentioned, free but lousy wifi. No minibar. Not even a pen and pad of paper by the phone. And would you believe, no gift shop? I go looking for some quick gifts for the kids, maybe a magazine to carry around for downtime – nothing. There's a sign that says "Gift Shop", but I'm told they no longer have one. They say that maybe — maybe — the hotel next door does.

To understand that little statement you have to appreciate the geography. The hotels are not built up, or deep. They are built…long. So from lobby to your room could be a five minute walk. My coworker Gary was in the "next" hotel which was about 10+ minutes away. They really are next to each other, there's just such a long line of buildings represneting each hotel that it's hard to figure out where one ends and one begins. Sure enough, by the way, Gary's hotel does not have a gift shop either. The third one does, though – but no magazines or books.

So here I am on the floor of Phoenix airport, waiting for my flight back to Boston. This is the best connectivity I've had. I'm getting lots of work done. 🙂

Being on maintenance medication means regular trips to the doctor to get bloodwork done. It's quite the annoyance, not because I mind getting stuck with the needle by someone who literally has no medical training, but because I hate being late for work.

Last time I did this I met up with a member of Oprah's army who, I'm quite sure, would have stabbed James Frey on the spot for sullying Oprah's good book recommending name. This is the woman who gave me the memorable quote, "You shouldn't make Oprah mad, she's very powerful."

This time, arriving at 8:30 like I always do, I'm told that she doesn't get in until 9, and that's it's always been that way. Lies. And that she leaves at 5, too, guaranteeing that I have to miss a good chunk of my work day to get this done. When she finally calls me in I sit in the chair in silence (no small talk or anything from this one) while she stares at the computer. Wiggles the mouse. Straightens the monitor. Looks confused. Presses the space bar.

Meanwhile I'm waiting. And waiting. And she's doing her little thing. Space bar. Mouse. Monitor. Repeat.

After maybe 3 minutes of this she wheels her chair out the door and shouts down the hall, "Does Terry turn this off before she goes home at night?"

Three people, including my primary care physician whom I know to be a kindred geek, appear. Must be a slow morning. My doctor reaches under the desk and TURNS THE COMPUTER ON.

I've been waiting here now for several minutes for the privilege of getting blood drawn from my body by someone who DOES NOT KNOW HOW TO TELL IF A COMPUTER IS TURNED ON.
Wouldn't you think that that's a pre-requisite before jamming needles into people? I bet they didn't check to see if she knew how to tie her shoes before she got her vampire certificate, because that's just one of those things that every three year old should know how to do. You know, like TURNING THE COMPUTER ON.

Heard this joke on the radio this morning and it bears repeating. Apparently it's a repeat, as they said "New episodes begin next week." But I'd never heard it.

Three people are out on a hunting trip. Dot is at camp while Bob and Dan have gone off into the woods. Suddenly two shots ring out! After a few minutes, Dan enters the camp dragging an 8point buck behind him.

"Great shot, Dan!" says Dot.

"Bad news!" says Dan, "I accidentally shot Bob."

"What? And you left him out there in the woods, bleeding, just so you could bring the buck back?"

"Well," says Dan, "It was a tough decision. But then I figured, nobody's gonna try to steal Bob."

Went to see Jesus Christ Superstar this weekend. I do like this play – this will make the third or fourth time I've seen it (including once when we flew to New York on a whim especially to do so). This time was at the North Shore Music Circus, which I think is in Beverly, Mass. Somewhere around there.

Loved it. Really and truly thought it was an excellent show. Different enough from the others I'd seen that there was stuff to watch and appreciate, without just sitting back and enjoying the music. As always my opinion of the structure is the same — the best part is Judas' big number at the end. I don't really need to see another 10-15 minutes of Jesus hanging on the cross being tortured.

Neat parts in this production that I hadn't seen before:

• Several of Jesus' disciples, including Judas, were wearing Islamic outfits, including the headpiece which I want to call a koffi or something but I'm sure I'm spelling it incorrectly. I thought that was an interesting statement on the whole "Can't we all just get along" thing. Then again maybe I only thought that's what they were and I'm reading too much into it, which would be an interesting statement unto itself :).
• The children's chorus. Whenever the "good crowd" was on stage, there were many children present. During Simon's number — you know, the one when they're whipping themselves up into a frenzy and Simon is telling Jesus "You know, you could get them to march on Rome if you wanted to…." there's a neat little bit where Jesus looks first at the adults, realizes the bad path they're going down…but then he looks at the children and realizes that they're mimicking everything the adults are doing. I liked that. It illustrated that "This thing has started and I've lost control of it" idea that runs throughout the play.

  Although it's not part of this play, can I mention something about the New York production I saw? In this scene in particular it was fascinating because as Simon was singing to Jesus, in the background behind them all of the followers were pulling guns and ammunition out of big chests in the middle of the stage. So when Jesus turns around he sees all of his people are now armed and ready for blood. Drove the point home nicely.

• Judas' final number was accompanied by lots of "media", including images of Jesus meeting Oprah, Jesus as People's Sexiest Man Alive, and so on. Of course, all those comic shots were interspersed with shots of him beaten, bloodied and crucified, so it was a pretty disturbing montage.
• During the 39 lashes, many of Jesus' followers – men and women alike – kept throwing themselves in front of the whip in an attempt to save him. It never worked, of course, and they got whipped for their trouble before being pulled away by the guards. But we got to see that his people didn't abandon him, and were trying to save him right up until the end.

Overall an excellent show. Didn't love their King Herod. And Judas death scene was a little too conservative, since we got to sit and watch him fumble for his harness to connect to the noose before taking the dive – and he kept one hand on the noose and one hand on the harness at all times. Which would have been fine if there was any danger, but all he did was step into a trapdoor that lowered him, it's not like he was being dangled by the noose at any time.

Perhaps the most fascinating part of the whole show is that you don't really need to believe in Christianity to like the show. There's never a point at which they say "Up, Jesus is the son of God." The entire play is about this guy who thinks he is, and the path that his followers take and how they misinterpret what he was trying to do. It's just that figuring out how to end such a play is tough. End it before he dies and you miss the real impact. Go past that and you might be able to actually make a happy ending about how people really did learn something and didn't just pick up with their lives as if nothing had happened, but then you have to decide what to do about the whole resurrection side of the story.

Ok, the new Elmo is out, and there's video available for what he does. Basically you keep tickling him until he does the robotic equivalent of peeing himself. Think I'm kidding? Watch the video…

It's interesting from a robotics perspective. The hand slapping is stupid looking, but the ingenuity of having him bend forward and then whip himself backward as a way of falling over is neat. He doesn't look especially cuddly, but none of the robotic toys do. I can't see my kids insisting on carrying Elmo around with them when we go places.

However, that can't stop one from asking the question of whether to buy TMX Elmo anyway. Will this be the next big thing? Will he be selling for $2000 on eBay come Christmas time? Is $40 now a good investment? It's an interesting call. I could buy two of them now, and then if they skyrocket in price, sell them before the holidays, and if they don't, just give them to the kids. Decisions, decisions. (Actually I see that they're already long gone at $40, Amazon is selling them in the shops for a minimum of $100. I guess that answers that question!)