String Theory

Rose loves to grab onto anything string-like. Necklaces, hair, and of course the window blind cords.

Today was a full Rose day. Since I missed yesterday, enjoy multiple photos!
This is Rose looking out the front window while holding the blind cord. She is standing on me to rest her arms on the top of the couch.Rose has recently learned how to stand when holding on to something. I couldn't resist the behind bars shot. Most of the time while standing We also went to the library today, and thought it is just across the road, it is bitterly cold here. I bundled up the package and scooted across the street to pick up some books that came in.

101.1

Sounds like a radio station. It is Rose's temp. Not a happy camper, congested, not sleeping well. First bug.
So we gave her some tylenol. First drugs administered by us.

I also fixed the strap on the changing table. It came with a hole for the non-adjustable strap set at the very end. This made the loop, when the strap was buckled, far bigger than an infant and even still too big for Rose even with the adjustable side at its smallest. I made a new hole by heating a wire and melting a hole halfway up the webbing. Now it fits and is adjustable. Rose is starting to wriggle more on the table, so this should help.

Choices, Choices

Today, I put a souvenir Cardinals baseball and a cricket ball in front of Rose. After reaching for each one, she moved to the side of the cricket ball and picked it up. As the afternoon wore on, she played with both, but spent more time chewing on books.

Fossils of Summer

Each summer I can usually be found at Sugar Hill. It is my favorite dance weekend for quite a few reasons. Camping, singing, swimming in the lake, late night revelries, eating together, great music, great dancing, nice dance hall, and so many more. I have been going since about 1996 or 1997 and have only missed a few.

One of my favorite things to do on Saturday during the day is visit the beach on the other side of the lake. The beach is almost entirely made of fossils and geodes. This image is taken of one of the many pieces that has traveled home with me from the weekend.

School at Night

After a day of shoveling snow and writing student recommendations, I went to school to set up for the professional day I am taking tomorrow. Had to get the room ready and drop of materials for the person covering. I will be continuing to work on recommendations tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get to report writing, too.

While at school, I took some night photos. I really like taking night photos. I love my gorilla pod! It can do such neat tricks.
After taking some building shots, I played around with making prints in the snow using the bottom of one of the safety cones.

Clippings, indeed

Hey all,

I hope people are catching on to the daily posts and enjoying them. If so, please let me know by making a comment now and then. I'd love to hear from you. I added a service to see where people are located who look at my blog. Barcelona? Who dat?

Today's post reflects what I suspect the nature of this spurt of blog activity will be. Some art, some fun, some mundane...
On the mundane edge, I found my side view mirror cracked this morning. Whether from the intense cold of last night or by foul play, I don't know. It is very disconcerting, though, to watch cars pass from one segment of the mirror to the next.

As I was driving around today, I saw this sign encouraging folks to walk upside down or to do fancy ski tricks.My penchant for patterns was satisfied by a trip to the hardware store. Had to return some hose clamps of the wrong size for a project I was doing and pick up some brushes for a school art project. The pipes caught my attention.One of the blogs I read, Art from Pushing Buttons and Turning Dials, has some of my favorite art out there. I was inspired by recent posts to play with a picture I took of copper pipes.

Back to School

Last year, I had a student teacher from Lesley University. In return for the work of being a supervising teacher, I received a credit for one course at the school. I was supposed to use the voucher by last semester, but with the new baby, new job role, and then Reena's broken ankle, it just did not seem the time to take on a course as well. Now that much is settled and moving more smoothly and the extended voucher is only good for this semester, it was time to enroll. I have not taken a formal college course for quite a while and am looking forward to doing so. I have chosen a course called Teaching the Fundamentals which is for students going into fine arts education. I look forward to learning much about integrating art into the main curriculum.
I pushed Rose's stroller into the elevator and was prepared to hunt down the registrar's office. Amazingly, it was an open desk area just outside the elevator with very approachable people. I was able to enroll and shift down the counter to pay. This is a far cry from my previous experiences in higher education in which the registrar's office and finance offices are often far if not in separate buildings, and they are either hidden or staffed by people whose job it seems is to keep enrollment down. No, this was just too easy. What a pleasure.

Sunrise and masks

This morning as I set off for the hardware store and then school, I saw a most gorgeous sunrise. I know the physics of it, but sunrise and sunset still amaze me. I pulled out my camera and snapped this picture hoping to pull over later and get a better foreground. As soon as I found some nicely silhouetted trees, the glow had almost gone. Fleeting beauty.
At school today, my students put petroleum jelly on the inside of the plaster casts they made of their faces. Into these greased vessels, we poured plaster. These new casts will serve as the foundation on which the students will build several masks.

Cow Doughnuts

We have now set up a rug on which Rose spends much of her time playing. Easier to get around on than wood flooring and somewhat more insulated from the New England Winter cold.

Today I was incapacitated by a cold I picked up returning from Sydney, so I called in sick. School, however, was canceled, so I am not out a sick day.

In looking at the toys on the rug, I am struck by the prevalence of plastic, noise-producing gizmos--exactly the thing I wanted to avoid. The pink donuts-shaped piece in the middle is covered with soft Holstein black and white on the other side and moos when you press the right place. A cow doughnut. We have a wood rattle and a wood teething ring (on the carpet).

Recent cool toys I have found are at: Earthentree, Hazelnut Kids, Oompa, Happy Green Baby, Tiny Bird's Organic Baby, Progressive Kids, and EcoToys are just a start. I am aiming for a bit more of a balance; however, life and reality may just be plastic, lit-up, and sound-producing. On the positive, we do have tons of books!

Books to Chew

Last year, my students threw a baby shower for Rose and the gift was books. Each student selected his or her favorite childhood books. A recent favorite of Reena and mine is Sheep in a Jeep from Mosby. Rose seems to like it, too; although it might be for the taste!

A new start

I have long wanted to do a daily picture, so when Reena decided to run a daily picture blog I watched it unfold with admiration. I, too, will now try to do a photo a day. Perhaps some text, too.

Last night, I heard the rain falling. I didn't realize the obvious that it was below freezing, so this morning when I was hauling recycling down to the front, I slipped down the stairs on the glazing of ice that had coated every surface overnight. Cans, bottles, paper, and cardboard rained down and skittered away over the slick surface. Luckily, I was just shaken. After much spreading of salt and ice melt, I attacked the ice on my car.

Temptation resisted

I saw these at Whole Foods and did not buy one. Wow, what temptation.

notes and updates

Hello faithful blog readers-you three know who you are!

What is new? The school year is beginning to look like it might settle down into a predictable pattern. I might even know what I am teaching a day or two before I teach it. That would be good considering I am only teaching half time this year.

Rose continues to grow and amaze us every day. I think many first time parents discover this joy, but it has not diminished over the many years humans have had children. Today, she finally took to a food--carrots. We have tried rice cereal, bananas, and other foods, but it was carrots that started her slurping greedily rather than pushing the offending substance out of her mouth.

Last week, Reena broke her ankle pretty badly, and that has led to a ripple of changes in both our lives. I have taken the opportunity to restructure my life to include a few priorities that I wanted to focus on. Each evening (for a few days, let's see how long this lasts) I have stretched, written in my journal, and then read before sleep. It is a pattern I want to cultivate in my life.

nuff for now.
ciao.

Full Night's Sleep

I think last night was the first full night's sleep. We've had stretches from midnight to 5 or 5:30, but this was a full 11 to 6. Rose also now grabs both legs with her hands.


The itzbeen is a wonderful tool. The glowing orange buttons have symbols for diaper change, feeding, sleep, and anything you want. The oval button above the readout turns on a flashlight. There is a right/left slider for keeping track of which side a child was nursed. As you can see, Rose went 9 hours between feedings and 8.5 between diaper changes. This is about how long she slept.

Dancing and Doing

I was in a groove before heading off to Philly, and upon returning, I have found my groove still in place. I worked on getting my desk set up, straightening out the house for cleaners tomorrow (yay), and I even went contra dancing tonight. Even better, I found the New England crowd to be welcoming. This is a first and a big incentive to return and dance again.

Pot Rack

We purchased this thing over a year ago, it was majorly delayed in shipping (something about bad weather in China), and then it just sat on my table amidst piles of jobs to do. Well, today I did it. I hung the pot rack even though the placement of joists was masked by the use of thin wood strips used to space the ceiling from the joists. I spent way too much time on it, but I am very happy with the results. Now all I have to do is patch about 20 or so drill holes in the ceiling.

Insomnia

Having taken care of the baby each night at the 3:30 feeding, I am not wide awake at this time. We switched off to give each other a bit of a break for sleeping, but I can't sleep. Been awake since 12ish. Bleh. I'll be on again around 5:30. I'll need to nap sometime today.

The Band and The Baby

So it seems that the baby is a great fan of The Band. I put on Kingdom Come (a live album) and she just went to town in her little floor exercise setup kicking and swinging arms to the music. Who knew that a Bostonian by birth would love Southern Rock from such an early age?

new togs

I was shopping for new shorts and other summer gear. I try to balance environmentally/socially responsibly created new clothes with going to thrift stores and giving clothing continued life. The latter is much friendlier to the wallet, but recently I have been trying to help the demand for new clothing from good sources grow.

One of my favorite companies is going out of business. Check out Nau to see a model of a very good clothing company that didn't make it. Also, there are some excellent deals on the inventory that they are trying to sell off.

On Time and Sleep and other fancy things

With the new baby in house for over a month, I am learning the new perspective on time and sleep that each new parent learns. The many warnings of, "Say goodbye to sleep" and "Go see lots of movies now" are warnings communicated in simple terms.

Granted, Reena and I are both home full time, and that is a huge precondition to my new perspective. A full-time parent, whether single or unsupported, has a Herculean task. However, I have found that my sleep hours have decreased a bit, but the most interesting thing is my notion of time and sleep have radically changed. They are no longer tied to the rising and setting of the sun, but now they revolve around the sleep cycle of the baby. Reena and I trade off the night with one of us staying up until 3:30 or so and the other waking with the dawn chorus. Rose is beginning to catch 3 to 4 hours of sleep at a time, so this doesn't necessarily mean that the responsible party has to be up during that whole time--it just means it fairly often.

Thus, I am getting about 5 hours of sleep each night--an amount that would not work for teaching full time but is seeming to suffice for parenting an infant. Yes, this parenting gig is much less work than teaching full time, so far. This will get even more doable now that the New York trip is over (I took my class to New York for three days and two nights last week), the yearbook is done (I can't even describe the frustration that inDesign has been giving me), final reports are written, and the year-end DVD is authored and produced. Then it will just be my normal projects patiently waiting their turn to be done. Baby has certainly ratcheted the pace of getting projects back a further notch.

Next up during or after all of this is new material on the freedmanriles website with Rose. I have the structure down. Now I just have to build it.