Neurofuzz

Happy Hanukkah! Merry Christmas! S Novym Godom! (really, you haven't been missing very much from this end)

2011-12-24T22:35:00.000-08:00

Haven't been here in a while. Not much to say, really. Zio's paper is finally accepted for publication. My paper seems worlds away from being submitted, even though I need it to get a job. I futilely send out applications for jobs, in spite of my sparse publication record, knowing I will not be called for interviews without another paper. Androosh is growing like a weed. Life keeps hurdling forward. Blah, blerch, bleh....

The holidays are here. On Christmas day we escape.

Bahn mi. Boba tea. Red wine. Frantic packing.
Boston here we come.

Ded Moroz has a proper beard this year. I am ready.

moar mutterings

2011-09-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

Z: "What will we do with that beef one?"

Me: 'We'll raise her until adulthood, then hopefully she'll still like us enough to be friends."

september mental ramblings

2011-09-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

-Back to portland-fall-weather-suck.

-Kiddo is growing and singing. A lot.

-Work stress continues to intensify.

-Extended family health issues continue to be a great concern on both sides.

-Have a feeling we may be living in the same state next year.

-My cat's coughing problem seems to have resolved.

-I gave my daughter a horrible hair cut this evening. Hopefully she'll let me "repair" it in the morning.

-Bought a cute, cheap robe at Ross. Suddenly realized it's covered in hello kitty cat heads on ice cream cones. Welcome to Andryushka's future therapy seasons.

imagine this...all over a grown woman's robe

-My grandma had a great birthday celebration today, and I'm very happy about it.

-I wish I could sleep for a week straight.

the first hot weekend this summer - an update from the field

2011-08-21T15:38:00.000-07:00

Today's trip to Sauvie Island was rudely interrupted by our normally reliable Subaru dying in the middle of I5 of a sudden cardiac arrest. Zio is waiting by the road for a tow truck, while Andrea and I wander back toward our house. Zio found a blackberry bush near the body of our vehicle. Meanwhile Andrea and I packed provisions of crackers, oranges and prunes for the long trip home.

(Edit) It was a very long trip home with melty popsicles and a goosegg on Androosh's head from slipping near the water fountain. And we think our alternator's gone out. Still, I'm happy that it got hot enough to finally turn on the fans in our house this evening instead of wearing my my fuzzy robe.

(Edit Edit) It was the alternator + a killed battery from being driven with a dead alternator. A trip to the mechanic and eight hundred bucks later Jimmy (the car) is home safe and sound.

late summer haiku 2011

2011-08-16T07:18:00.000-07:00

the sun finally shines
but I do experiments
must find a job soon

Andrea draws kitties!

2011-07-26T23:27:00.000-07:00

Zio is with Andryushka on Cape Cod. I am back in Portland trying to get data so I can write a paper so I can get a job. Summer fun. Wheeeeeee!

Here are two drawings Zio sent me that Andrea made of Henny Penny (aka Bubby, aka Henry).

In additional insipid news:
- I got a smart phone a few weeks ago. I use it to listen to Pandora and This American Life all day.
- Current US politics makes me want to vomit more than usual.
- Living at home alone means I've been visiting the Burgerville (too) frequently.
- I've been walking home a lot at night. Some nights the transients seems more numerous, spread out, and semi-threatening than they have in previous years.
- This year's summer weather kinda sucks in Portland. Same as last year.
- The payoff for the suck weather has been some nice things in the garden, like broccoli and lovely dahlias.

science eductation

2011-06-04T09:04:00.000-07:00

“Science is devoted to formulating and testing naturalistic explanations for natural phenomena. It is a process for systematically collecting and recording data about the physical world, then categorizing and studying the collected data in an effort to infer the principles of nature that best explain the observed phenomena. Science is not equipped to evaluate supernatural explanations for our observations; without passing judgment on the truth or falsity of supernatural explanations, science leaves their consideration to the domain of religious faith. Because the scope of scientific inquiry is consciously limited to the search for naturalistic principles, science remains free of religious dogma and is thus an appropriate subject for public-school instruction. . . .

The grist for the mill of scientific inquiry is an ever-increasing body of observations that give information about underlying ‘facts.’ Facts are the properties of natural phenomena. The scientific method involves the rigorous, methodical testing of principles that might present a naturalistic explanation for those facts. To be a legitimate scientific ‘hypothesis,’ an explanatory principle must be consistent with prior and present observations and must remain subject to continued testing against future observations. An explanatory principle that by its nature cannot be tested is outside the realm of science.

The process of continuous testing leads scientists to accord a special dignity to those hypotheses that accumulate substantial observational or experimental support. Such hypotheses become known as scientific ‘theories.’ If a theory successfully explains a large and diverse body of facts, it is an especially ‘robust’ theory. If it consistently predicts new phenomena that are subsequently observed, it is an especially ‘reliable’ theory. Even the most robust and reliable theory, however, is tentative. A scientific theory is forever subject to reexamination and — as in the case of Ptolemaic astronomy — may ultimately be rejected after centuries of viability. . . .

A thorough scientific education should introduce these concepts about the hierarchy of scientific ideas. Such an introduction would permit the student to relate the substantive findings of science to the process of science. Just as children should understand and appreciate the scientific theories that offer the most robust and reliable naturalistic explanations of the universe, children should also understand and appreciate the essentially tentative nature of science. In an ideal world, every science course would include repeated reminders that each theory presented to explain our observations of the universe carries this qualification: ‘as far as we know now, from examining the evidence available to us today.’ . . .

Scientific education should accurately portray the current state of substantive scientific knowledge. Even more importantly, scientific education should accurately portray the premises and processes of science. Teaching religious ideas mislabeled as science is detrimental to scientific education: It sets up a false conflict between science and religion, misleads our youth about the nature of scientific inquiry, and thereby compromises our ability to respond to the problems of an increasingly technological world.”

amicus brief in the Edwards vs. Aguillard U.S. Supreme Court case, 1987

toddler deep thought

2011-04-05T22:36:00.001-07:00

"When it's dark we can't see anything!"

post 400

2011-03-16T22:34:00.000-07:00

I have been distracted with work. And kiddo. Life seems to be zooming past, and I'm hanging on by my fingernails.

That being said - life, in spite of being crazy busy, is good. Zio and his lab mate have taken a piece of his thesis work and made it into what could be a major scientific discovery. A potentially dogma-changing discovery. I'm very proud of him, and a little jealous of the fun he's having. That's all I can say for now - it's super secret, and I don't wanna jinx it before it's published. Let's just say it's added some excitement to his scientific life.

As for my scientific life, I'm trying to wrap up another story for a paper (not as earth shattering as Zio's), and think earnestly about applying for real jobs this summer and next fall. Kinda daunting. And I'm stunned that it's already mid-March.

And our kiddo will be three years old in just over a month.

She's cheerful and articulate and imaginative and weird and willful and funny and a pretty neat little human being. She's gonna give me a run for my money as she grows up.

And finally, the superficial and self-indulgent section of post 400. In honor of my latest search for an adequate black hoodie.

3 things I use until they wear out and always replace (age 21-present):
- black hoodie(s)
- converse chuck taylor all star® oxford shoes
- queen bee truckette bag

my first cover

2011-03-08T20:37:00.001-08:00

Andrea's favorite things - 34th month interview

2011-02-17T22:08:00.000-08:00

Color: blue
Food: tortellini
Animal: bear
Activity: tiger (?)
Cartoon: peppa pig
Flavor of ice cream: green
Activity (revised): la-la-la-la-laaaaaaaaa

super parsnip

2010-11-21T18:25:00.000-08:00

Andriushka and Daddy play while gathering the autumn crop and raking the leaves.

so...um..yeah

2010-11-15T22:23:00.000-08:00

Hi.

Whew. Heh. It's been a while.

Yeah.

So, what have we been up to?

Um, well...

We went on our first major East Coast road trip:

Boston

to Burlington, Vermont (with Uncle Bob & Auntie Mal)

(meet Beyonce - proud mama of 10)

to Eastern Ontario

(note the 4th ingredient)

to Niagara Falls, Canada

to Rochester, NY

Um - what else.

Zio and I have been working hard in the lab, which is (partially) why I have been so scarce here. My paper was provisionally accepted into a journal with minor revisions, but I sent my rebuttal letter and revised manuscript back over a week ago and still haven't heard back. So I am nervous. Meh.

Oh, we dressed up for Halloween.

I turned another year older last weekend and had a lovely, low-key evening out with nice lebanese dinner and the tiki bar from last year. But before that, during the day, my lab got me 2 kinds of pie. And before even that, at the weekly lab meeting I happened to be presenting at that morning, I served mimosa's because it was my birthday and I felt I could take liberties. I think it was my best received meeting presentation in the nearly 4 years that I've been there. Coincidence?

So, yeah, um , that's what we've been up to.

I'm too tired to think of a witty way to wrap this up (I had no wit even in the body of this entry anyway), so I'll just say ta-ta til next time.

breakfast conversation

2010-09-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

Andrea is eyeing her cereal suspiciously.

Me: "Andriushka. You look dubious."

A: "OOOOOooooooBEE ESS!"

Me: "Dubious."

A: "B! S!"

Me: "No, Andriuska, Dooo..."

A: "BS! BS! BS! BS! BS! BS! BS! BS! BS! BS!"

Me: (facepalm)

summer - a reprieve

2010-09-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

sauvie island

pouty crêpes

2010-09-06T23:20:00.000-07:00

"How could you torture me by making us sit on this lovely patio?"

"Oh no. Delicious crêpes."

"Horror! I must escape."

"Hah! I was kidding. Those crêpes are awesome."

Are you there blog? It's me, Guido.

2010-09-05T21:22:00.000-07:00

Things have been very busy this summer. And by summer, I mean anti-summer, because Portland brought it on far too late into July to make our tomatoes ripen in a timely matter. I was hoping it would make up for its tardiness by giving us some lovely indian summer, but no luck.

On Wednesday, August 25, 2010 Zio defended his dissertation. As these things usually are when they end well, it was incredibly anti-climactic. He did a fantastic job, though, and I am very proud of him. He officially became a Post-Doc September 1st.

One. Last. Experiment. Before I can resubmit my paper. Everything else is done. Literally; the manuscript and figures are done save this one superficial but required experiment. It is not going rapidly enough and has been making me feel frustrated and discouraged.

This past year has left us thoroughly spent. We are finally planning a family road trip for October, and I cannot wait. There will be colors. And Canada. And quaint cabins. And Niagara Falls.

Andryushka update:

Her language skills exploded while she was in Boston this past July. She's able to have actual conversations with us, and has no qualms about voicing her opinion loudly and frequently. She can recite all of, and identify at least half of, the letters in the alphabet, and enjoys pointing them out when she sees signs in public. Andrea is still not as physical as a lot of kids her age, but has a fair amount of confidence climbing thanks to Deda's tutelage. She is also using the potty at home to make all her pee-pee thanks to a sticker chart, demonstrating that she can be properly motivated and that she really digs stickers. She is cheerful, and plays well with others, but is also strongly defiant at times and very impatient. Sometimes this leads to some impressive meltdowns. She loves dancing, singing, food, books, playing pretend, cars, animals, dirt, nature, numbers, shapes, and talking. Pretty much her parent's kid.

Just home from Boston...

2010-08-18T21:12:00.000-07:00

and Andrea made a poopy in the potty!!!!

P.S. Uncle Bob's wedding was beautiful

july haiku

2010-07-23T07:49:00.000-07:00

Zio is writing
Andryuska's with grandparents
I miss her so much

Andryushka snippets

2010-06-08T22:01:00.000-07:00

Mommy: "Hey, Andrea. What's your name?"
Andryuska: "Hot Dog!!!!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mommy and Andrea (singing): "Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O, and on that farm he had a.."

Mommy: "What did he have?"

Andrea: " A pig"

Mommy and Andrea (singing): "E-I-E-I-O, with and oink oink here, and an oink oink there, here an oink, there an oink, everywhere an oink, oink! Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O, and on that farm he had a.."

Mommy: "What did he have?"

Andrea: " Another pig!!!" (insane giggling)

repeat ad infinitum

last weekend

2010-06-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

Andryushka, Zio and I on the central Oregon coast.

longing for the mundane

2010-05-22T01:17:00.001-07:00

We've arrived at the end of another intense week. And I feel drained and melancholy.

No worries, folks. Nothing directly going on with our little nuclear family. But the peripheral drama involving those near and dear to us includes us as well. This week made me reflect on how detached we've become from one another, and how a word from an individual can cause severe harm in other peoples lives.

And it's pouring rain and freezing outside. Where did May go?

Ah - last weekend was nice. Here's a paradoxical clip of us enjoying nature.

cross cultural

2010-05-20T23:43:00.000-07:00

outside

2010-05-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

I needed to get out of town.

We had too much excitement last week with family and medical issues. Fortunately, things settled down by the weekend, and the weather was lovely. So on Saturday morning Zio, Andryushka and I jumped into the car, drove along the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge, and set out to hike the Catherine Creek Trail.

Except for we turned left instead of right at the trail head, and didn't discover our error until quite a ways in.

So we ended up just kinda improvising our hike.

At several points we were very close to high voltage power lines. They sounded like oil in a frying pan.

We finished our hike back on the trail proper, and enjoyed wildflowers and a pretty little waterfall.

Extra bonus! Album of 2 year old Andyrushka fotos by Zio - click here.

all I wanna do is tricycle

2010-05-06T23:14:00.000-07:00

Andrea's first ride on her tricycle after her birthday last month. Finally uploaded.

Tonight

2010-05-03T22:27:00.000-07:00

Andrea is sleeping in a big girl bed for the first time.

2 years old

2010-04-25T23:19:00.000-07:00

Andrea turned 2 last Friday.

Yesterday we had a little birthday party at the house with her friends from daycare, my parents, and some coworkers. It was a really nice little event. Not too big, not too small.

It is very late, so I'm afraid I'll just have to the pictures speak for themselves in this post. More detailed post to follow. Maybe. I should probably try not making promises on the bloggy that I don't keep (see archive for the past five years).

Zio and I were marveling today at how much more independent Andrea is, and how she's transforming from a baby to such a cool little kid.

Happy 2nd, my sweet Andrushka. Next year - on the potty.

volcanos and other events

2010-04-21T21:19:00.000-07:00

Zio is finally home.

He was half a world away for ~~nine~~ twelve days attending his Grandfather Vladimir's funeral. A volcano in Iceland extended his stay. Take that, technology.

Meanwhile, Andrea and I held down the fort back home, and we did better than I had expected. I managed to hit my stride by mid week juggling work and Andrea solo, so much so that last Friday I thought I totally had the hang of this single parenting thing. But after that second, unexpected weekend alone with Andryushka, I was spent. Monday and Tuesday left me chugging coffee like a maniac at work and lazily watching a few too many YouTube videos of Clifford the Big Red Dog with Andyushka during the evening. Needless to say, last night I was ecstatic to see Zio come walking through the door. As I type this he is getting Andrea ready for bed, and I am far more appreciative of co-parenting than I was a week and a half ago.

So. Andrea turns 2 in two days. In three days we will have Andrea's first real party. There will be banana cake with raspberry filling. And balloons. And a bunch of little kids running around. And maybe a string piñata.

Passover to Easter : the week in review

2010-04-04T21:09:00.000-07:00

- Passover seder went very well. We had a couple of dear friends over. Zio made tasty gefilte fish from (almost) scratch, and we also had tender, tiny lamb ribs marinated with lemon, olive oil and rosemary for our zeroa. Add four types of matzo and three bottles of wine. By the time we got through the ritual and on to the meal we were pretty well sauced, and Andryushka was bored out of her gourd. She was also deliriously hyper from lack of sleep. Which brings me to...

- Andrea refuses to nap. It's been on a off for a while, but for the past week it's been a constant. The only complication has been that she tries to keep the other kids awake during naptime her at daycare. (I seem to recall a similar story about a certain uncle BOB)

- Andryushka sings a lot. This week she's been riffing on ABC/Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, mixing the words, making up her own words, putting in some fly dance moves (i.e. running back and forth, then twirling in circles).

- I submitted a paper. Finally. As usual, the whole thing was grueling and anti-climatic. I'm looking forward to the next few peaceful weeks until the reviews come back and make life really interesting again.

- Today is Easter. The festivities with my family are next week, and it was raining today, so we didn't do anything too lavish. I made chocolate chip cookies, and Andryushka received an easter walrus. He says "Blaaarrrrrr" when you push his flipper.

Baba i Deda !!!!!!

2010-03-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

Baba i Deda were here last week!

Baba very generously permitted me to relinquish my domestic duties for the week, and I was most grateful. (Spasibo, Baba!) I buried myself in extensive paper revisions, and the week went by in a blur.

Andryushka learned how to give a toast. Now she's ready for Uncle BOB! and Auntie Mal's big day this fall.

Last weekend the weather was perfect! We went for a hike on arguably the most gorgeous trail in the Columbia Gorge.

Andryushka walked a fair bit of it. Impressive!

Deda helped by keeping Andrea entertained along the way.

We miss you, Baba i Deda. Thank you for spending such a lovely week with us.

happy pi day

2010-03-14T18:10:00.000-07:00

toothpastefordinner.com

And some Andryushka firsts this weekend:

- she's started putting together her Thomas the Tank Engine tracks by herself

- she sang the "ABC" song all the way through

Zio was away this weekend representing our nuclear family at Uncle Bob and Auntie Mallory's engagement party in North Carolina. We missed everybody and wish we could have been there, but two plane trips in four days is too many for young Beefik.

But Zio's not coming back alone - Baba i Deda are joining him. A very fun and exciting week is in store for Andrea!

Andryushka counting

2010-03-11T23:10:00.000-08:00

"one, two, free, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, two, free, four...(repeat)"

Spring!

2010-03-02T07:14:00.000-08:00

- First daphnes, now cherry blossoms and rhododendrons fragrance the Portland air. And daffodils and camellias are everywhere. Glorious Portland spring!

- Andrea loves spring so much she keeps sticking cherry blossoms up her nose. Bleh.

- Last weekend we celebrated Purim in a low key way, with a delicious basket of goodies from Baba, some jewish holiday music off of Pandora (the majority of which was Hanukkah related - oh well), and a reading of the book of Esther. Andrea had fun making loud noises every time we said "Haman", and squishing the packing peanuts from the package Baba sent us. Also, I wore bunny ears.

Maslenitsa - better late than never

2010-02-21T11:06:00.000-08:00

Last night we successfully had our first big party since Andrea was born. And I don't think I'm being immodest when I say that it. kicked. ass.

Zio still has his bliny mojo (I never doubted it), and we're still able to host a rockin' party even post kid.

Only one thing I did wrong. I was so busy hosting and running around after Andrea and having a great time that I took no photos.

Oh well - next time...

what the hell happened to february?!?!?!

2010-02-18T21:52:00.000-08:00

I'm pooped. Zio's pooped. Andrea's feeling great.

Zio and I are both in the midst of writing papers, which is grueling at the best of times. Combine that with taking care of our sweet beefik, and we both find ourselves with very little energy to spare. Hence the dearth of blog entries this month.

That, and I was gone for a week at the ARO midwinter meeting in the lovely Disneyland Hotel. I gave a talk and didn't faint. And I partied with my lab. A lot. I was impressed that I could still drink til 2, then hit the morning talks at 8. (The secret? Hangover breakfasts at Steakhouse 55)

Zio? He stayed at home, and was a single dad AND a grad student for a week. I left him a heart-shaped box of the nicest truffles I could find at Walgreens before I took off for my flight, but I think that was hardly fair compensation.

And Andrea? She's growing like a weed and cute as a button. Her vocabulary continues to expand, and she speaks in simple sentences now. Her favorite songs are "Old MacDonald", "ABC", and "Wheels on the Bus". She resists eating her veggies, and would have hot dogs for every meal if given the choice (we've taken to chopping her veggies finely and sneaking them in her other food). Andrea would prefer never getting her diaper changed, running around naked all the time, and and never having to go to bed. She has an appreciation for jewelry, loves to paint and count and sing and be outside, enjoys playing ball and jumping in mud puddles, and is one fierce little toddler.

And she loves hamming it up for the camera -

(Yeah - I know. It was taken before the last blog entry. That's how well we're doing this month)

This weekend - Zio's bliny. Too excited.

drizzly weekend

2010-01-31T23:11:00.000-08:00

Typical end of January weather in puddletown. A little drizzle, mild temperatures. Another typical weekend of meandering around town with Andryushka.

Here's a few nice photos of our weekend.

The pub:

The park:

The children's museum:

Whew!

bathypoo song

2010-01-27T22:56:00.000-08:00

Uncle BOB!, Zayac and Perkula sing the bathypoo song:

Andryushka's reaction:

prions

2010-01-27T09:21:00.000-08:00

perhaps the cutest photo ever

2010-01-21T22:53:00.000-08:00

The morning after the lil' snow flurry last month that shut down the entire city during Tuesday rush hour.

Even with the scary, multi-headed mutant bunny beast it's still super cute.

Thanks, Uncle Bob.

wild in the country

2010-01-16T23:51:00.000-08:00

So, what's been up with us?

Zio and I are both working hard on writing papers. Zio's also getting things moving regarding defending in the foreseeable future. I've been invited to give a talk at a conference in less then a month (in the Disneyland Grand Ballroom, no less). All told, things are going pretty well with our lives professionally at the moment. Life will become far more anxiety-inducing once Zio graduates and we have to figure out what to do next, but for the moment I'm just enjoying where I'm at and bracing for Zio's final push.

Boring, boring. Now on to the fun stuff.

We visited Amber last weekend and met her baby goats.

In addition to goats, Andrea met Amber's llama

and sheep

and pig (that we didn't take a good picture of, but he's really a sweetie).

Very good times.

Today we went to a public ale house and walked in the rain instead of cleaning our house. That's how our weekends often go. There are things we need to do and errands we need to run, yet we also want to maximally enjoy the time we have together as a family, when Zio and I can do fun things together with Andrea that we can't during the week when we're working and switching off parenting duty with one another.

Happy New Year

2010-01-07T09:55:00.000-08:00

We went to Bend with the Cape Cod Crew! I'd write more about it, but I'm at work. Here's a link to some pictures to tide you over:

clicky

This morning Andrea...

... picked out an outfit she wanted to wear for the first time. It's a green dress with a polo shirt-like top. Very preppy.

... said a complete sentence. "I made coffah-coffah." (translation: I coughed)

zoo

2009-12-28T22:14:00.000-08:00

Lately Andrea insists on having ALL of her stuffed animals in bed with her at night. She also takes to bed a small, puffy rainbow-colored ball that used to be a cat toy. She has to hold the ball as she goes to sleep. And "oh no!" if we lose the ball amongst the critters.

Happy Holidays

2009-12-28T07:21:00.000-08:00

Christmas

Boxing Day

its begining to look a lot like Christmas

2009-12-18T07:16:00.000-08:00

After Andrea's bath last night I briefly left her alone in her bedroom while I prepared her a bottle of milk. I heard a little voice behind me saying "hat! hat!". When I turned around I saw this:

Yes, folks - she did this all by herself.

Happy Hanukkah

2009-12-13T09:50:00.000-08:00

Happy Hanukkah to our family in Boston and New York. We love you!

in so many words

2009-12-07T21:37:00.000-08:00

Andrea is speaking.

Andrea's vocabulary has exploded in the past month. She's not only able to communicate in single words; now she can string together adjectives + nouns or adverbs + verbs.

Here's a sampling of what's in her growing vocabulary:

- all the major external body parts

- all her items of clothing

- animals (farm , exotic, and aquatic)

- the names for her toys

- the food she eats and the beverages she drinks

- plate, bowl, and utensils (alas, "fork" sounds like when she says "frog")

- "pieces" to describe small bits of things

- counting (She has 2-6 in order; after that she starts throwing in random numbers through 20. She refuses to start with 1, though, and will only start with 2.)

- she can identify "numbers" vs. "letters"

Andrea can't string together words into meaningful sentences yet, but wants to appear as if she can. She likes to babble with a few real words thrown in and appropriate sentence-like inflections. And she'll look you in the eye while she's doing it as if to say "are you getting this?".

words!

2009-12-05T15:29:00.000-08:00

Andrea's 19 months old, and her vocabulary is growing rapidly! Here are a few of her current favorite words and phrases:

- "dude up!": Means "pick me up". We have no idea where it came from.

- "oh no! happened!": Said when she's just done something with unfortunate consequences. Today's latest example was when she pooped on the floor instead of the potty. Which brings us to...

- "poopy!": obvious

- "frog!": Andrea really likes frogs! Except when she says it, the "rah" sounds more like an "uh", and the "g" sounds more like a "k". At least she's able to clearly articulate "truck".

- "hot" and "cold": uses appropriately (i.e. "hot water" and "cold juice")

- "meat!"

- "catface!" : unfortunately, a favorite web cartoon.

- "slow!": because sometimes catface takes way too long to load

- "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew! gross!" :(sorry; that one's mama's fault)

birthday singing part 2

2009-11-24T23:14:00.000-08:00

Letters of Note

2009-11-19T21:23:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to an entry in my current favorite blog:

Kurt Vonnegut's letter to his family while in a repatriation camp - 1945

Its horrible. Its exquisitely expressed. It should be required reading post Slaughterhouse Five.

As my friend Alina said - "It's all (Vonnegut) minus the sarcasm".

autumn good stuff and lessons in anatomy

2009-11-17T20:50:00.001-08:00

Andrea stomped through the crunchy leaves yesterday evening.

She laughed and yelled "cunchee leeeeeves!!!!"

Mama laughed too.

-----------------------------------------------------------

Andrea asked me about a week ago what her lady parts are called.

A very reasonable question with a myriad of answers, the social complexities of which she is thankfully too young to understand.

I hadn't thought about what my answer would be. It just came out.

"Vulva"

I have good reasons for choosing this answer. I hate using euphemisms like "hoo-hoo" and "nooh-nooh" and "wee-wee". And "vagina" is not technically accurate. Vulva is the latin-derived english term for female external genitalia.

But I don't like the word. It sounds guttural. It's clinical and cold. It reminds people of uncomfortable moments in high school health class.

Of course, since Andrea has none of these pre-conceived hang-ups, she's very happy pointing and calling it by name.

But she says "voovah", which sounds much more adorable.

I did things for my birthday

2009-11-15T21:52:00.000-08:00

If I don't write it here my feeble brain will forget.

For example: I had pink eye on my birthday last year. Totally forgot that. Thank you, bloggy, for keeping the memories alive!

This year was far more festive and had less rain and eye goop:

- My lab took me to Bambuza for lunch. And I was most impressed with the way my fellow lady post-docs took control of the situation. The waiter played dumb when they asked for the cocktail menu, but they we're all "hell no, it's our friends 35th birthday, I SEE the bottles of alcohol right behind you, we don't care if it's one in the afternoon". So we put booze in BamBUZa and had some potent drinks with our tasty meals. Only one, though. We had to go back to work and stuff.

- On Friday the 13th Aaron took Zio and I to the "new" Brasserie Montmartre. The front staff didn't quite have its kinks worked out, and the live jazz was so loud it was distorted, but the kitchen was spot on. Delicious.

- Celebrations continued at Thatch. Hence the Shag pic at the top of this post.

I've established a theme with my 30 and 35th birthdays - getting drunk at Tiki bars. Maybe at 40 I'll wear something like this

Whatever.

2009-11-15T16:09:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday was my 35th birthday.

Andrea had some private vocal coaching with Zio earlier in the week, so she surprised me by suddenly singing Happy Birthday while I drove her home from daycare. She had many repeat performances throughout the evening, one of which I requested and recorded.

I should know better than to make a girl sing during her dinner.

BOO!

2009-11-02T11:15:00.000-08:00

Halloween pics for you!

clicky

18 months

2009-10-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

Andrea has reached the end stages of her babyhood.

She still wears a diaper and has a bottle of milk before bedtime. But now she can run. And climb. And understand language. And express herself.

I'm impressed with how rapidly her language skills have progressed this month. Most of what she says is still baby babble, but she clearly comprehends the majority of the things we say to her. Her current favorite phrase is "oh no!". She's also able to accurately repeat words that we say to her, especially when we're telling her what novel objects are. She's a little sponge brain.

Andrea continues to have a flexible, go-with-the-flow attitude about life. We already see a clever, mischievous streak in her, which will likely be interesting for us when she's a little older, but will make for being a kick-ass adult.

She still loves exploring things in minute detail. She also loves books, and dirt, and animals (instead of owls, this month her favorite was cows), and trains. For the most part she sleeps through the night, and wakes up bright and cheerful in the morning.

I hope that as she grows she maintains the curiosity and joy for life she has now.

OH - and one more important milestone. This month Andrea reached 24lbs. She finally weighs more than Henry.

lame excuses

2009-10-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

Reasons I never blog anymore:

* I put all my links in facebook

* I use what little creative writing skills I have on status updates in facebook

* I use the rest of my free internet time lurking around facebook

* I post cute photos in facebook

* Facebook, facebook, the great time-suck facebook

* I can only get on the computer after Andrea is asleep

* Henry has taken to clawing my leg and head-butting my arm while I'm on the computer because he needs time and lovin' too

We just returned from Andrea's first road trip. It went surprisingly well considering the long car rides with an 18 month old. We went to this which was perhaps the most amazing wedding I've ever been to. Andrea was a real trooper. She loved meeting people and playing with ice in the beverage cooler. We enjoyed drinking the beverages and celebrating with our friends.

Good thing mommy had that pink crinoline.

We also took a trip down near San Francisco to visit Zio's best college friend and her family. My only complaints are that the visit was too brief and we were all exhausted: us because of partying so hard, she because she's a second year medical resident.

Actually, I have one more complaint. I was outwitted by her three year old son. And it wasn't because I was tired.

I will write more soon about Andrea at 18 months. Very soon. I promise.

I have to go eat dinner with my husband now. After I check my facebook updates.

chestnut

2009-10-11T21:23:00.000-07:00

Exploding Chestnut Recipe by Zio:

Ingredients:
1 edible chestnut (hedgehog-type outer skin removed)

- Place chestnut in toaster oven

- Set temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit

- Bake for 10 minutes

- Remove from oven

- Set chestnut on kitchen table to cool in front of you while you're eating dinner (for optimal excitement, have a friend/spouse/pet sit across from you at the table)

- Wait

In approximately 5 minutes you and your dinner partner will hear a delightful bang and be showered in pulverized chestnut meat!

Wearing protective eye-wear may be advisable.

The last day of September

2009-09-30T22:13:00.000-07:00

- I saw a woman commuting to work on a unicycle.

- We turned on the heat for the first time this fall.

- Andrea tried to make a sound like an elephant. She was very exuberant and got spit all over her face.

- I drank drip coffee instead of two espresso shots.

- I gave a talk about my project to a group of labs. My lab asked practically all the questions and did most of the talking. Either my project was so fabulous the other folks could think of nothing to say, or so ludicrous they didn't even know where to start.

- Seriously. Its getting cold around here. Andrea's wearing footie jammies.

- We have a drosophila infestation still, in spite of the cold. They have red eyes, so I probably didn't carry them home from work.

- One of my aquarium fish died. The white cloud. Its a minnow that's extinct now except in captivity. It sure was a pretty fish.

- I made a lazy dinner of a big pot of Trader Joes. Zio and I also polished off a bottle of Prosecco.

- Now we're having tea. before bed. Cheers!

Andrea's 17 months old today

2009-09-23T23:06:00.000-07:00

Mama is lazy and making a list! Hooray!

- This is the first month Andrea has been totally weened!

- Andrea's favorite phrase is "uh-oh!". She uses it when she wants something or when she's having difficulty executing a task. Its a very convenient warning for us during potentially hazardous physical stunts involving stools and climbing and pulling large plants down over her head.

- She's a rough and tumble kid, and a bit of a tomboy. She like cars. And trucks. A lot.

- She's been sleeping through the night for the most part lately. Its may be due to her chronic green snot finally drying up; her health appears to have improved (knock on wood) with the new day care situation. This weekend we're taking a major step and moving the parent's bedroom out of her room. Soon she'll get all that big lovely space to herself without her folks snoring in the background.

- Andrea loves being outside inspecting plants and dirt and rocks. She repeats sounds now with increasing accuracy, and she appears to understand most of what we say (but she'll pretend she doesn't when she thinks its to her advantage).

Happy 17 months, my beautiful girl.

The Mushroom Hunt....

2009-09-14T21:06:00.000-07:00

....yesterday was not very successful. Alas, its hard to gauge the narrow window when the tasty mushrooms appear, and in this neck of the woods we don't have an active Russian Mushroom Network like we would on the East Coast.

Our little nuclear family did enjoy the low-key, picturesque hike up Lookout Mountain, and saw some killer views at the top. The trip was also a bit historic because it was the first time Andrea hiked part of a trail on her own two little feet. Maybe that was what she was telling us about on the top.

Great Achievement

2009-09-05T16:39:00.000-07:00

Andrea made a pee-pee in the potty!!

lazy picture post (one week late)

2009-08-29T21:33:00.000-07:00

We went on our annual berry picking trip to the Mt Hood National Forest!

(last weekend)

This weekend we wanted to go to the State Fair, but instead are hanging around town recovering from a really nasty cold. We made the difficult decision last week to immediately remove Andrea from our lovely but large daycare and place her in a much smaller in-home care environment. It will hopefully help with the constant yucky illnesses we've been fighting since last fall.

Andrea looks like such a big girl sitting in the pub!

communication progress

2009-08-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

When Andrea has her dinner it's often still too hot to eat, so I say "hot hot" and blow on her food to cool it. Lately she's been blowing on her food instead of mama.

Tonight it seemed fairly cool in the house, so I put her to bed with her fleece blanket. I did her usual bedtime routine (rubbing her back and singing to her), and when she was nearly asleep she sat up, pursed her lips, made little blowing sounds, and said "hot hot". I exchanged her fleecy for a light cotton swaddling blanket; she laid back down and, within moments, was fast asleep.

I'm back

2009-08-13T06:10:00.000-07:00

Drank a beer last night with no ill effects.

Yum.

Hooray!

belated stump post

2009-08-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

Its gone from record scorching highs to autumn weather within the span of a week, so I'm making a more cozy picture post. And a belated one at that.

Our former upstairs neighbors are some of the bestest people you'd ever want to live next to; sweet dispositions, beer drinkers, appropriately sick senses of humor, Canadian (kinda explains the last two), own a cat as voluptuous as Henry and a luxurious gas grill they kept on our back porch and their apartment smelled of scrumptious baked goods (and often contained them). They were sunshine and rainbows, but we were shy and hardly visited them, and then it was too late and they (sniff) moved away to Seattle.

The lady of the house is a talented artist. So to make sure a little piece of their magic stayed behind in this old house, and because I think her work is amazingly cool, we commissioned a custom stump for Andrea.

I'm afraid these photos don't do it justice, but Catherine's blog really shows you the amazing detail. It stores stuffed woodland creatures at the moment, but as Andrea grows, I think it will a fun and creative part of her play.

And Mama really likes playing with it too.

heat wave

2009-08-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

Its hot in Stumptown. Very hot.

Zio had a creative strategy for dealing with the heat in our un-air conditioned house - he situated an industrial fan and three smaller fans to blow cool air up from the basement. By yesterday morning the basement felt like a sauna. The upstairs smelled like mildew and used kitty litter, but stayed below ninety even on the 106 degree day. Well done!

Zio also picked up an inflatable kiddie pool with two large flowers/ sprinklers. We've been living on the lawn drinking beer*, with our feet in the water and our daughter dancing in the sprinkler flow.

(*I'm still off the beer, and have been drinking cider and chardonnay instead. My cousins reunion night may be a fun time to try beer again and see if my lower esophageal sphincter (or LES for you medical types) has quit being such a pussy. I'll bring TUMS, and one of my cousins is a nurse, so its all good.)

Andrea update - she is really walking now. She's spent the heat wave playing in her pool naked eating pineapple and babbling and giving us hugs. Lots and lots of hugs. She's a very cuddly girl.

yes

2009-08-01T07:45:00.001-07:00

Chad

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summer nights

2009-07-29T21:36:00.000-07:00

almost record high temp (106!!!!!) + kiddie pool + Thai take-out + Chardonnay + Zio & Andrea = f**kn amazing evening!!!

oh, hai blog!!!

2009-07-24T23:03:00.000-07:00

Wow. Yeah. Its been a while.

I know, I know. I usually keep in touch with you more often, bloggy. And, yes, for the past few months my updates have been pretty half-assed and lazy. But I've been feeling pretty run down with this work and raising a kiddo stuff. Then I developed this tragic sensitivity to beloved beer - it gives me heartburn now - and I didn't really feel like writing about that sad adventure. And then I was out of town for a couple of weeks in Cape Cod and Boston.

We saw my husband's wonderful family and many of our our friends from the crew.

Andrea's started walking, and really loves playing in the water.

We saw a friend's band in Boston (which was fantastic because I hadn't seen live music in who knows how long...)

After two strong vodka tonics, I started taking "artistic" photos.

Alas, post Andrea, I have become both beer intolerant AND a lightweight.

I left Boston last Sunday while Zio and Andrea stayed behind for another week. This is the first time I've been away from Andrea since she's existed, and my feelings have been mixed. Its been relaxing and luxurious to slip back into my old bachelorette lifestyle of flexible work hours and salad and cold cereal for dinner and going out to see friends without worrying about a little person. On the other hand, I miss her terribly and think about her constantly. I also miss Zio very much; the necessity of splitting our vacation with Andrea means we saw very little of each other this month. So I'm feeling relaxed from my time alone, but appreciating my lil' nuclear family and really looking forward to seeing them back in puddletown on Monday.

absentee blogger

2009-06-28T22:06:00.000-07:00

Dearth of posts here in the ol' blog. Let's see, what's been happening lately...

Andrea turned 14 months last week. Still not walking on her own, but cruises around by using other stuff for support (i.e. dragging her IKEA easel around the house like a cumbersome and noisy walker). She's starting to eat more like a big kid - no more cutting up her fruit into tiny pieces. She's also down to nursing a few times a day and is very nearly weaned.

Andrea has been taking advantage our lovely stretch of beautiful weather by playing outside every day. Her favorite equipment at the park is the swing, but she's pretty content just playing with grass and leaves and dirt. She's also quite the artist with crayons and chalk; her timid lines and stipples have evolved into broad assertive strokes.

As for us, we're doing ok. Andrea is waking up much less often at night, which is helping a lot, but we still had a few ailments to deal with these past few weeks. Mostly its been me and my gastrointestinal tract rebelling on both fronts (aren't you happy I finally got back to sharing again in this blog?). So things are going swell, but that being said, I think its time we had a little break from the parenting/ working grind.

Oh yeah - we're headed to Cape Cod next Friday for several weeks. Not a moment too soon:)

bicycle

2009-06-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

Last week I commuted to work on Monday and home on Tuesday on my bicycle for the first time. Which was pretty huge for me. For reasons both rational and irrational, riding my bike kinda terrifies me. I feel too unwieldy while riding to not hold onto both handlebars (in white knuckled terror), making signaling my turns look more like I'm throwing up gang signs. And, you know, stuff like this happens.

But, despite a few very uncomfortable moments, I made it to work and back in one piece without wetting my pants. So I'll try again next week. Hopefully it will keep getting less frightening and more fun.

Modern Talking

2009-06-12T06:29:00.000-07:00

DAH-tah = hot dog
MEH-nah, MAYN-ga = mango
nah-nah = banana
DAHT = dog
EYEEEEE (accompanied by finger gauging your eyeball) = eye
KIH-dee = kitty
hoo hoo = owl
DAH! = lots of different stuff; usually accompanied by pointing
FEEsh = fish
BAY-bee = obvious
DA-dee = again, obvious
MAY-mah = ? we have no idea ?

Happy Friday!

tons of photos posted

2009-05-26T07:08:00.000-07:00

I think we've finally caught up now. Whew!

Table Rock

2009-05-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

moar

13 months

2009-05-23T21:44:00.000-07:00

A glimpse into Andrea's daily life - her notes from daycare.

5/18/09
Appetite: Fair
Notes: Great mood. Loves playing with water. Tried on different hats for fun. Very talkative.

5/19/09
Appetite: Good! Drank all of milk by 1:20pm nap.
Notes: Struggled with sleep in AM - but took a great nap this afternoon.

5/20/09
Appetite: Good - enjoyed all her foods today. Less thirsty today - only drank a bit of milk this afternoon.
Notes: Andrea had a good day. Especially enjoyed storytime - the last page of book has a picture of owls!

5/21/09
Appetite: Good. Strong preference for hot dogs! I notices she would put melon in her mouth, chew a couple of times, and spit melon out. (edit: the melon was perhaps a little over ripe.)
Notes: Andrea really enjoys animal sounds lately. Of course "hoo hoo" is a favorite, but she also really enjoys "quack quack" accompanied by a hand making a duck bill that quacks, then tickles her.

5/22/09
Appetite: Good. Drank all milk, enjoyed fruit, strong preference toward finger foods today.
Notes: Andrea had a good day. Held out for some time before nap, then slept a while. Andrea and Ben were giving each other kisses in the loft, then laughing at each other! Have a great weekend!

Oh my! They certainly grow up fast now days.
Happy lucky 13 months, sweet baby girl.

Fish? FISH?!?! What is this gibberish?

2009-05-12T21:15:00.000-07:00

Andrea and I playing with her baby puzzle.

Mama: "This is a dog, Andrea. DOG."

Andrea: "Dog."

Mama: "Good! And this is a cat. CAT."

Andrea: "Cat."

Mama: "And this is a fish. FISH."

Andrea: .....

Mama: "Fish, Andrea. F-I-SH."

Andrea: (tongue going in and out) "La-luh-la-luh-la-luh-la-luh-la-luh!"

1 year (and 10 days)

2009-05-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

So I didn't make a post on the big day. Shame shame on mama.

(Lame excuse: I wanted to post after I had the pictures and movies of Andrea's birthday adventures uploaded online. But that's still a work in progress, and I fear I would have no energy to write an entry after it was done. So, words now, pics soon to follow.)

Andrea had a great first birthday. She spent the day having fun with her daycare peeps, and the evening stuffing herself with her very first cake. It was lemon with white chocolate and cream cheese frosting, and I didn't bake it. I did bake the second cake she had the following weekend during a lovely family get together my aunt generously hosted at her house. Andrea enjoyed seeing all the relatives, and had the most fun playing with my cousins two daughters. I was temperamental, but grateful I didn't have to do clean-up and dishes afterward. Overall, a success.

Andrea isn't walking yet, but she is a very confident and effective crawler. She can walk around a room if she supports herself on furniture (she looks like a beginning ice skater clinging to the walls of the rink), but still doesn't stand without support. She babbles a lot, and has a few words that she uses regularly: hi, bye-bye, Bubbee (what we call our cat, she uses it to refer to all aninmals), baby, mama, daddy. She is becoming a bit pickier about what she eats: she's tired of avocados at the moment, and doesn't just eat everything we stick in her mouth at restaurants anymore, but loves and can't get enough fruits (pear, banana, kiwi, oranges, prunes, raisins, blueberries, melons...). She also can't get enough of being outside. She loves playing in the grass and the dirt and looking at trees and flowers.

Her favorite toys are books and things with small intricate parts, and her favorite animals are kitties and owls. She's really into looking at pictures of owls.

One amazing thing about Andrea's personality is she's very social and thrives in an environment with lots of other kids, yet enjoys playing by herself for long periods of time. When she plays alone she becomes extremely focused on whatever she's playing with at the time. She likes to closely and thoroughly inspect things she finds interesting.

I would write more about how marvelous and magical my darling one year old daughter is, but mama is very tired and keeps seeing the computer screen go in and out of focus as I force my eyes to stay open. Hopefully year number two will allow for more sleep. Oh, and we ran a major errand today. I got a bike. Its last year's model, and its blue, but the specs are pretty much the same. I"m going to use it to commute to work and get back into pre-baby shape. Maybe biking will give me more energy. Hopefully I'm not squished by a car. Yay!

One year ago today...

2009-04-22T11:11:00.000-07:00

... at around 4am I was rousted from my slumber by bona fide labor contractions. Thirty hours later, an extraordinary little person arrived.

One more day, and I'll be mama to a one year old.:)

saturday noshing

2009-04-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

A beautiful sunny Saturday. And we walked here for lunch yet again. The whitefish salad - it is to die for. I shared it with Andrea, who agreed it was pretty damn good.

We also took Andrea to the zoo for the first time. Truth be told, it kinda sucked. It was late in the day so the animals weren't very active, we couldn't see much anyway because it was completely mobbed, half of the exhibits were under construction, and Zio and I still hadn't recovered from our week at work, so our asses were dragging. In spite of this, Andrea had a pretty good time. She loved the people watching. And when she saw an enormous sea lion, she yelled "buh-bee, buh-bee, buh-beee*!".

(* we call Henry, our 23lb cat, "Bubbi")

We rounded out the day with gelato and a visit to the park, where Andrea went down the slide for the first time.

Happy spring!

this ain't no twitter account

2009-03-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

Guido spent the afternoon sitting in the sunshine, mending our clothes and drinking Irish breakfast tea while listening to "This American Life". Thanks for taking a lovely long nap, Andrea.

11 months

2009-03-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

The past month was challenging because our household was hit by a grody assortment of respiratory ailments. Being really sick sucks, but being a parent while really sick really, really sucks. But now we're breathing easier (literally) just in time to enjoy Andrea's huge developmental progress this past week.

Andrea says a few words now - "kitty", "baby" and "dog". I think she understands what they mean because she points to, for example, the picture of a baby on the side of her yogurt container and says "bay-bee bay-bee bay-bee". She doesn't address us as "mama" or "dadee" yet, but when she wants boob she says "ma ma ma ma ma bee bee bee bee bee". "Bye-bye" is still solidly in her repertoire, and she also has "hi". Except when she says it, it sounds like "hiiiiiaaahhhhhhhhhh" (growly baby raptor voice).

I cannot believe it's nearly been a year. It has been the longest year of my life, yet I'm stunned its gone by so fast.

And now, cuz its late and I'm lazy, a list of some current Andrea faves:

Food: potatoes, fin crisp, garlic (in food, not straight), blood oranges, yogurt, banana, avocado, borscht

Drink: boob

Toys: books, bicycle helmet, blocks, shoes

Activities: standing up, exploring, crawling, examining things in great detail, going on walks with mama and daddy, looking at books, boobus, baby talking, pointing at stuff

Dislikes: getting diaper changed, mama and daddy not understanding what she needs the first time she asks, being too hungry or too sleepy, getting stuff she wants to play with (i.e. electrical cords, pointy objects) taken away from her.

Almost a year, sweet baby girl. Next month we'll do you right - you'll get a party and some cake.

spring!

2009-03-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

Its light later in the evening, the flowers are blooming, and Andrea is more interactive. Our walks home from daycare are more exciting. She points at stuff now; doggies, flowers, kids at the park, the huge mosaic alligator at the park...

Work is frustrating. I see interesting things that turn out to be artifact when I do the follow up controls. I'm hoping for some sort of breakthrough, but have no idea when it will come. So I just keep working and planning new experiments and hoping something yields fabulous data someday.

I need to exercise. Andrea is almost a year old, so the "new baby" excuse is played out. In the next few weeks I'm going to get a commuter bicycle. I think that's the best way to fit exercise in while working and caring for a wee one. (It works really well for Ilya.)

I bought this shirt. We have high dress code standards I have to maintain at my work.

finn crisp redux

2009-03-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

snot free edition

we're on the mend

2009-03-10T22:31:00.000-07:00

Here's what we did with ourselves while we were sick. The hacking in the background is me.

BTW - I'm feeling very much better since my last post. Hooray!

the opposite of trifecta (a.k.a. blog entry when she's sick and says too much)

2009-03-02T20:39:00.000-08:00

- daycare rhinovirus

- first post pregancy/birth menses

- bacterial pneumonia

I've been laying low since last Friday afternoon. Real low. From now on its early to bed & eight hours shut eye a night.

Speaking of Friday, in spite of my waking up with a fever, my talk to the institute went really well. Ibuprofen and adrenaline = miraculous. My boss said she'd like me to give a presentation at a meeting this December.:)

Laika

2009-02-26T09:03:00.000-08:00

walkies walkies, space walkies

10 months

2009-02-24T22:20:00.000-08:00

Andrea turned 10 months old yesterday.

Mama didn't get around to posting yesterday because we were too busy celebrating Andrea's birthday with a fever and runny nose. But today she was feeling much better, so we celebrated with sushi and jello.

Andrea doesn't eat sushi (yet), but I am amazed at the variety of foods she does eat. She likes almost everything we offer her. She loves spicy food. Garlic is a huge favorite. She even tried spicy Thai eggplant and loved it. The spicy eggplant coming out, however, was another matter; while her mouth can handle hot pepper, her sensitive tushy cannot. So we'll save the really hot food until after she's potty trained.

This is the month Andrea began to seem less like a baby and more like a little girl. Her speaking still consists of only babble, but she's so expressive while she does it. The best way I can describe it is a term used all the time in high school acting class - emote. The kid emotes.

Andrea is a very focused baby. She likes to thoroughly examine fine details. She is also very reluctant to relinquish any object she happens to be examining at the time, and is extremely vocal when something displeases her, like when we take away fascinating electrical cords or Mama's shoes that she wears to lab.

Overall, Andrea is an easy going, happy little girl. With every passing month she becomes more expressive, more physical, and just more fun. And every time I see her big, beautiful smile I'm oblivious to everything but the sweet, pure joy she makes me feel.

Happy 10 months, sweet girl.

getting away

2009-02-19T06:33:00.000-08:00

We spent our first valentine's day with Beefia on the Oregon Coast.

We stayed at a cozy little place in Yachats. I couldn't believe how gorgeous the weather was on Sunday! We took the kiddo to the beach to see the waves, and it felt balmy.

When we got back to our room, we opened the windows and the front sliding glass door to let in the warm sea breeze. Beefia took a nap and I reclined on the couch barefoot reading a cheap paperback while looking at the ocean. Luxurious.

We also took Andrea to the Newport Aquarium.

And we had some tasty brew.

After which I wore Beefia as a hat!

for baba

2009-02-11T07:53:00.000-08:00

There is a "bye-bye" at the end of the video:)

What!?! How long with no Beef?!?

2009-02-09T13:16:00.000-08:00

We finally bought a new cord to upload pictures from Zio's camera. New pics from 2009 are up on Fotki.

P.S. Christmas pics are also up. Too bad the camera ran out of batteries (unlike Zio's new walking stick).

my family tree - Zio guest blogs

2009-02-08T11:59:00.000-08:00

Today's guest blogger is my husband, Zio. He's been doing quite a bit of research on the internets this weekend.

On Saturday morning we decided to fill in the names of my and Guido's ancestors in the family tree in Andrea's baby book. Yes, she has a baby book. It's filled with flowery patterns, Victorian-style pictures of babies, and paper pop-ups, a dental chart to fill in the dates when all of Andrea's teeth come in and so on. And up to this point we have been actively ignoring it. The family tree page is very ornate , but only goes out to Andrea's great-grandparents' generation, which of course we are very familiar with, as quite a few of them are still alive. The only thing we had to look up was the spelling of Guido's maternal grandmother's maiden name, which became her middle name when she married. Dauchy. I typed how I thought it was spelled into Google and got this transcription of her family's Bible by the historical society in Troy, New York. It had six generations of Dauchys with all of their birth dates, marriages, living locations and so forth.
So that was a preamble to a story of how Google searches helped us complete a huge amount of genealogical research in a matter of a couple of hours. Of course it helps to have really prominent family members who were among the founders of various American towns and institutions.
The Dauchy Bible website has a note at Generation 3 when Samuel Dauchy married Mary Bradley. It says that Mary Bradley was Aaron Burr's sister. This is of course the Aaron Burr who was the 3rd vice-president of the United States and fought Alexander Hamilton in a duel. His father, also Aaron Burr was one of the founders of Princeton University. However, this claim that Mary Bradley was the sister of Aaron Burr didn't make any sense as it is easily verified that Aaron Burr II had only one sister whose name was Sarah. Still, I was curious as to how the Dauchys were related to Aaron Burr. Google Books came to my aid with Andrew Warde and his Descendants, 1597-1910. It turns out that the Rev. Aaron Burr Sr., one of the first presidents of Princeton had a sister named Hester. Hester married Daniel Bradley and one of their children was Philip Burr Bradley, a Revolutionary war hero, Colonel of the 5th regiment of Connecticut and the father of Mary Bradley. Mary Bradley was married to Samuel Dauchy. She was Guido's 2X great grandmother's husband's grandmother.
So Andrea's Great X 6 grandfather Philip Burr Bradley was the cousin of Aaron Burr, 3rd vice president of the United States. Their common ancestor, Jehu Burr came to Salem, Massachusetts with the Winthrop fleet in 1630, and was one of the founding settlers of Roxbury, Massachusetts. I was able to learn quite a bit about his and his descendants' adventures with the help of this geizer's blog. He and his sons then moved to Springfield, MA, and then to Fairfield, CT on the Long Island sound. Living in the Connecticut colony was how the Burr family was able to intermarry with the Dauchy family.
The first Dauchy to come to the United States was Vivus Dauchy, who came from France to Ridgefield, CT in the 1720's. He was Andrea's Great X 7 grandfather. According to a website on the history of Ridgefield, CT Vivus owned slaves. He had thirteen children from three wives. His first wife, who gave birth to Nathan, was the daughter of an Irish immigrant with the last name of Scott. Nathan was the father of Samuel Dauchy, who married Mary Bradley, the Burr descendant from Fairfield. Both Nathan Dauchy and Philip Burr Bradley signed to ratify the constitution of the United States for Connecticut. So they were very prominent men in their communities.
The Dauchys then (presumably Samuel and Mary Bradley Dauchy) relocated to upstate New York. This is suggested by the fact that several of their children were involved in governing the town of Galway, which is near Troy. Their grandson, George Kellogg Dauchy, born in Galway, fought in the Civil War and married Lavinia Otis. He moved to Chicago and ran grocery businesses, and after the war, an ironworks company. His granddaughter, Anne is Guido's grandmother, Andrea's great-grandmother, born in Chicago in 1902. Guido knew her quite well, as she managed to live well into her 100's. She died in 2005.

Thank you, Zio! And for those of you who are unfamiliar with the infamous Aaron Burr Jr.:

eleven years

2009-02-06T20:11:00.000-08:00

Has it been eleven years already? My, how time flies.

I've been thinking about my mother a lot this past year, particularly within the context of my becoming a mother myself. Mostly remembering things from my very young childhood, but seeing things from her point of view, which is a very curious feeling.

I miss her so much. But I'm also just very grateful that she was my mother. She may not have been a perfect mother, but she was the perfect mother for me. I hope that I can be the same for her namesake.

Tonight I will make the same toast I did last year. But this time I'll be drinking the beer.

first word

2009-02-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

Andrea says "bye-bye" and waves whenever we leave the house or daycare. (It sounds more like "bah-bah", but close enough.)

economic stimulus

2009-01-31T20:41:00.000-08:00

The past month has been another one of those (un)fun periods at my job where every experiment I touch turns to poo. This past week was particularly bad. So I decided to indulge in a little retail therapy today and pick up some fashionable new shirts.

I've been reluctant to do this mainly because my post pregnancy body is still, you know, progressing. And I'm still nursing, so anything I buy now will have less foundation once Andrea's weened and my boobs go back to just hanging around my bra.

But my work finally necessitated a little shopping spree because all the shirts I have now are full of little holes from the lab benches. The lab bench countertops are made out of chemically inert epoxy that is resistant to chemicals and abrasions. The epoxy must be full of crushed glass, because all of my shirts and hoodies and sweaters have little holes right where I lean against my bench while I'm working. On the upside, thanks to the implosion of capitalism, clothes are pretty damn cheap.

While I was at it, I also bought a flag.

The flag of my fair state may look rather drab on the the front, but it has a special surprise on the back.

And who doesn't love a little beaver surprise?

addendum: The actual beaver on the flag is WAY cuter than the above GIF.

addenda: Zio said we're gonna go hang our flag "beaver side up".

Last Weekend

2009-01-26T19:54:00.000-08:00

...had some intense family drama, but it's resolved for the time being. I face the new week feeling physically and emotionally drained.

...I learned how to flush and administer antibiotics through a PIC line. It's always good to learn new skills.

...we got Beefia her first pair of shoes and a wool hat that makes her look like an alpaca.

...I should have gotten more sleep.

...Andrea first tooth finally emerged the day after she turned 9 months old. She demonstrated its impressive capabilities Saturday morning while breastfeeding.

I wonder if my energy &/or mental acuity will ever return to the point where I can write a proper blog entry instead of boring lists?

Today

2009-01-20T19:28:00.000-08:00

I'm ecstatic about our president's inauguration, disappointed in our city's mayor, and worried about my Papa who's in surgery right now.

Edit: Papa is out of surgery and will be recovering at the hospital for a few days.

2009 so far

2009-01-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

- I'm still writing /08 on everything.

- Andrea's seems to have grown an inch.

- Getting back to lab after 3 weeks was predictably fraught with failed experiments.

- Zio got a hair cut and I bought a black short sleeve sweater with hearts all over it. I think I'm regressing.

- I should get a hair cut too.

- Andrea is eating lil' finger foods now: banana bits, avocado pieces, pear slices and cheerios (except not really cheerios; the fake organic hippy brand of -ohs). She also really likes yo-baby yogurt.

- Andrea yodels and says "bay beee, bay beee, bay beee".

- Our day care wants to promote Andrea to the wobbler room next month.

- The January has been filled with crisp, beautiful sunny days so far. A major departure from our usual depression-inducing perpetual winter overcast.

The Holidays (in 225 words or less)

2009-01-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

- Christmas was fun during arctic blast 2008. We picked up my grandmother in our 4WD Subaru and went to Woodburn to spend it with my family. I got a beautiful wool coat from Zio and a pretty scarf from Tailand from my cousin-in-law. The only bummer was the roads were still so bad that not all the fam could be there.

- The flight to Boston seemed unbelievably long, but I think it’s because we had to schlep ourselves and a baby to the airport at 4AM.

- Visiting Boston and our relatives was great!

- We finally met my brother in law's cool girlfriend. We like her. She is a lovely person and has great taste in shoes.

- We didn’t go to Vermont with our friends, but I did get 2 books read.

- We went to a party on New Years. We tried to watch the ball drop, but couldn’t figure out how the TV worked and were stuck on a channel with soft core porn.

- I think I may have injured my tooth on one of Andrea teething biscuits. Those things are really hard.

- Andrea has some developmental milestones. She is really crawling and babbling now. She also has more hair. And she ate gefilte fish.

Happy New Year, everybody!

8 months

2008-12-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

Andrea is officially crawling.

Well, its not exactly crawling. Its more like creeping forward on her elbows while kicking her legs wildly. It kinda looks like what I would envision a baby zombie doing as it came after my brains.

Speaking of baby zombies, Andrea likes trying to eat our faces. She bites and sucks on our chins, cheeks an noses. I think its her attempt at kissing. Great technique, but she might want so save it for her future dates.

Current stats-
18 lbs, 27 inches tall

In the past few days Andrea has started babbling in a way that really seems like she's talking to us. She looks at us and speaks with inflection and purpose. It has led to yet another nickname - Heh-hia

Happy 8 months, baby girl. Its so exciting to watch more and more of your personality emerge as you grow.

arctic blast 2008

2008-12-22T22:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday and today brought the largest accumulation of snow I've ever seen in the Portland area, and I was born and raised here.

We spent this afternoon x-country skiing around the streets in our neighborhood.

Of additional significance - this is Andrea first snow.

And her first Hanukkah.

communist christmas

2008-12-20T11:17:00.000-08:00

Edit - There is no way to pause or stop the embedded version, so click here if you want to see it.

Zio and I are total procrastinators, and now we (really) have a snowstorm. Will we manage to finally do our holiday shopping this weekend, tavarish? Stay tuned.

P.S. Andrea is crawling now.

Edit 2: We braved the weather and did the shopping! Yay!