March 31, 2008

Big Questions and Theories

Yesterday Elliot asked one of the Big Questions: Why is the sky blue? Gary gave him a simple explanation of how sunlight is scattered by the atmosphere, along with a description of what the atmosphere is. Today when he asked again, I turned it around and asked him back. And he answered, "the oxygen and the nitrogen make it blue."

He has also been creating strange (to us adults, anyway) theories of how stuff works. His favorite tv show is "How It's Made", so he is getting into the concept of cause and effect, assembly lines, and so on. His theory on the gas pipes going into our house goes something like: "the gas is in the pipe, then it goes out here, then into this meter, then into this tube, then into the hot water heater, then into the vents, then it heats the house! Yes. (*satisfied hmm*) Just like that. That's how it works." (all said while pointing to various pipes and outlets and such, some of which are for gas, others not.) I can't help but be impressed and tickled at the same time.

Posted by Jen at 12:12 AM | Comments (1)

March 25, 2008

Easter

We went up to Napa to visit Gary's dad for Easter. I was (and still am) coughing, but I felt so much better Saturday morning. Lexi is now sick; she doesn't seem to be as bad as I was, but that could be because she can't complain as much. Her crawling has definitely improved over the past couple of weeks. She's still slow, and she hesitates quite a bit, but she'll move when sufficiently motivated (current motivators include balloons, either cat, or a Cheerio on the floor from breakfast).

Anyway, we spent the weekend doing pretty much nothing. Gary and his dad hid Easter eggs for Elliot to find in the morning. I filled most of them with chocolate (much to Elliot's delight), and a few of them I bought filled with playdoh. Gary Sr. and Emily made a spectacular Easter lunch, with ham, pierogi, green beans and sweet potatoes. Emily had spent the previous day baking challah and a flourless chocolate almond torte. After lunch, Elliot hid some eggs for Gary to find. Elliot managed to find all of the eggs eventually, but it took a lot longer than we expected. He spent a lot of time just standing in the middle of the backyard, sort of lazily looking around him and saying that he couldn't find any eggs. We encouraged him to walk around, look under stuff, and so on, but he didn't really seem to be in the right mood for a hunt.

Some pictures from our lazy Easter weekend.
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Gary Sr. and Lexi

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Filling the watering can...

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...and emptying it out

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Lexi playing outside

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It's MY rubber band!

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Now what?

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Truce

Posted by Jen at 12:32 PM | Comments (5)

March 21, 2008

obligatory photo (from February)

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Posted by Jen at 07:51 PM | Comments (1)

March 19, 2008

flu and other light news

I have got the flu, or at least a really bad cold. Probably the flu, though, since I've been sick since Sunday and feel miserable. Lexi has been a bit stuffy, and Elliot seems to have had a perpetual runny nose since late last year, but otherwise they are healthy. Gary, too.

I started a cardigan for Lexi last month, hoping I could finish it quickly so she could wear it this spring. Yesterday I finally decided to rip it out and start again with a new pattern. The one I was using just wasn't working out. It had at least one major omission; the publisher emailed me a corrected version a few weeks ago, which helped a bit. The pattern was for a cardigan in 3 sizes (2, 4, and 6), but I suspect the designer never actually tested it in the smallest size. The collar shaping was looking really terrible and unrealistic, and not at all like the sweater in the pattern photograph.

Gary helped me rip out most of the sweater (I had already knit everything except the collar and button band) last night and I started with a new pattern. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this one turns out better than the last one.

My C# programming has been going well. So far I've written several small programs to do tasks such as finding prime numbers, sorting numbers, and calculating the day of the week for a given date. I have a bunch of games to implement next (e.g. a program that lets 2 people play tic-tac-toe/checkers/pente).

Posted by Jen at 02:00 PM | Comments (2)

March 12, 2008

Lexi Crawls: The Movie

Posted by Jen at 10:09 AM | Comments (6)

March 11, 2008

Baby Niddle

This happened a few weeks ago, but I scribbled it down on a scrap of paper. We were eating beef stew with farfalle pasta (that's the kind shaped like a bow tie). Elliot, a very slow eater, had started playing with his food and talking to it in a very sincere, loving voice.

Elliot picks up a noodle. "Hello Baby Niddle. Did you have a good day? Yes?" He holds the pasta up to his mouth. "I love you Baby Niddle." He kisses the noodle. Then eats it.

Posted by Jen at 01:00 PM | Comments (3)

milestones

Lexi reached two important milestones this week. First, she started sleeping through the night! I had been using the cry-it-out method for getting her to go to sleep at night (basically, after our bedtime routine I put her in her crib and let her cry until she fell asleep, anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes). But during the night one of us, usually Gary, would bring her back to our bed so I could nurse her, and she'd stay there the rest of the night. On Friday we decided we needed to do some serious sleep training. Apparently that's the same night Lexi decided she'd start sleeping through the night, with no intervention on our part at all. She's now slept 4 nights in a row, so I am pretty confident I can say she sleeps through the night. At least until she starts teething again or gets sick.

For her second milestone, Lexi started crawling yesterday! Not very much, and not very far, but she was quite definitely on her hands and knees and moving forward. Now it's time for us to re-childproof the house.

Posted by Jen at 12:50 PM | Comments (3)

March 06, 2008

Lexi and Jen update

Lexi had her 9 month well baby checkup last week. She's dropped a little bit in the percentiles for weight and height, but not by much. She's still not crawling, but she can "commando crawl" (i.e. on her belly) backwards and turn around to face any direction while on her belly. This morning she also got from being flat on the ground to sitting up, a huge accomplishment for her! She's also not sleeping through the night yet, but for several nights this week she's stayed asleep for up to 8 hours.

My friend Rose took some pictures of Lexi yesterday after a walk through the park.

My update: I took the final exam for the C# programming class I've been taking for the past several months. I haven't heard if I passed or not, but the exam was relatively easy, so I have no doubt I did fine. Instead of taking another class right away I'm going to do some programming assignments that Gary has come up with. (In fact I'm supposed to be working on that right now.)

Posted by Jen at 10:39 AM | Comments (2)

March 05, 2008

cat food and 911

I let Elliot try cat food for dinner tonight. All afternoon he told me that he was a cat, and that he was going to eat cat food for dinner. I figured he would either forget about it, or temporarily convert back to being a boy, by dinnertime, but he did neither. It is pizza night, which he normally loves, but I couldn't convince him to even sit at the table. We called Gary to say hello, and Elliot confirmed that yes, he was a cat and would be eating cat food for dinner. Gary suggested I just give him some, so I did. Only one piece of dry food, in a tiny bowl, and he tried it! His initial reaction was "Yuck!" But a few seconds later he licked it again and declared it to be "Yummy!" He then put the piece in the (empty) cat food bowl and put his little bowl over it, to "save for later."

This week has been Emergency Week at daycare. They've been reading books about the police and firemen and practicing safety drills by lining up in a designated spot when Sonia blows her whistle. They've also been learning about 911. Unfortunately, I chose this week to start teaching Elliot his address. He already knew our street name, so we've been reviewing our house number each day. (For those who don't know it, our house number ends with 91.) This has caused a lot of confusion, so tonight at dinner (finally he sat down and ate pizza) we went over which number to call in an emergency and which number is our address. By the end of dinner he had it down, but he thought that he should call 6911 in an emergency most of the time. He also said at the end of dinner that he "was still turning into a cat."

Posted by Jen at 06:25 PM | Comments (2)