Wren made his first "sign" today. He copied me when I signed 'milk' and then did it again a bit later. I shall wait and see if he figures out he can ask when he wants.
He did well last night. He woke at 3.45am for a nursing and then did the 2 hour sleep till 5.45 but cried out only once and then slept-in until 6.30am. Fabulous. Of course I am now trying to make a theory about this and figure out what, if anything, I did differently. I can't tell right now.
This morning was good in another way. While I was out taking Frost to Zephyrs Joshua installed the clips on the kitchen cupboard doors. This should put an end to Wren's smashing spree. So far has has broken 3 bowls, one saucer and nearly a few glasses. He did the usual rounds of the cupboards but couldn't open any and moved on to ransack the recycling instead.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Baby Sleep and the law of diminishing returns.
It has been a while since I moaned about sleep deprivation but it hasn't been all bliss and 12 hour nights since the white-out. I changed my strategy from attempting to get Wren to sleep longer than 10.5 hours and decided to get him to go to bed later and get the 10.5 hours at a better time for me. Here is what happened:
Bedtime 6pm, wake-up 4.30am
Bedtime 7pm, wake-up 5.00am
Bedtime 8pm, wake-up 5.00 to 5.30am
As you can see there does not seem to be a one-to-one correlation between hours at night and in the morning. In fact, there seem to be diminishing returns. Last night Wren slept for 9 hours and fifteen minutes before being up for the day and that included his usual 3am-ish nursing.
So, here is my theory. Wren sleeps for 2 hours AFTER his early morning nursing. That means that when he was waking at 4.30am he used to nurse at 2.30am. (correct) and now that he nurses around 3.30am he makes it till 5.30am. Last night he woke at 3am (perhaps because there were a few noises at that time since Josh came to bed late probably due to having an X-box 360 and Halo 3 in the house, about which I shall say no more). So, he woke at 5am.
I am cranky.
I think that night weaning is really truly upon us. If he sleeps through that 3am business perhaps he will make it longer in one long sleep.
I am not sure what else to do because I am certainly not keeping on getting up at 5.30am when it becomes 4.30am at the end of daylight saving on Nov 3rd. That gives me 2 weeks to get Wren to a 6.30am waking.
I am grumble-bollocks X2 this morning.
Bedtime 6pm, wake-up 4.30am
Bedtime 7pm, wake-up 5.00am
Bedtime 8pm, wake-up 5.00 to 5.30am
As you can see there does not seem to be a one-to-one correlation between hours at night and in the morning. In fact, there seem to be diminishing returns. Last night Wren slept for 9 hours and fifteen minutes before being up for the day and that included his usual 3am-ish nursing.
So, here is my theory. Wren sleeps for 2 hours AFTER his early morning nursing. That means that when he was waking at 4.30am he used to nurse at 2.30am. (correct) and now that he nurses around 3.30am he makes it till 5.30am. Last night he woke at 3am (perhaps because there were a few noises at that time since Josh came to bed late probably due to having an X-box 360 and Halo 3 in the house, about which I shall say no more). So, he woke at 5am.
I am cranky.
I think that night weaning is really truly upon us. If he sleeps through that 3am business perhaps he will make it longer in one long sleep.
I am not sure what else to do because I am certainly not keeping on getting up at 5.30am when it becomes 4.30am at the end of daylight saving on Nov 3rd. That gives me 2 weeks to get Wren to a 6.30am waking.
I am grumble-bollocks X2 this morning.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
First step, first shoes, first root-beer float
Wren had a big day today. It was my school workday so he stayed at home with the babysitter Lisa while the wild winds blew and flurries of hail and bouts of torrential rain scoured Seattle. He did okay. He cried a bit, had very short naps but wasn't as wary as before. I think his molars are starting to hurt because although the right has all 4 cusps through, the left are just emerging.
First Steps
Since yesterday, Wren has been standing up all the time. He has learned to stand up from sitting down without holding on and pulling himself up. However, once up, he didn't know what to do so he would just stand there playing with a toy or looking at something he is trying to reach. Today, I showed him that he could take a step once he was standing. He had a few tries and can now take one and a half steps most attempts. He mainly does it because he thinks its funny that I am so excited. He grins at my encouragement.
Shoe Shopping for Frost
This afternoon we went shoe shopping to get Frost a pair of winter shoes. All he had until now was his pair of orange crocs with a pumpkin and black cat stuck on them. He ended up with a pair of Stride Rite sneakers and some socks in which he ran up and down the shop "sliding, like it was really slippery so I was like woooooosh". A customer who came in while we were in the shop said "he is very high energy, isn't he?" He is.
Wren Has Big Feet
While there I was seduced into buying Wren a pair of shoes, his first. He was barefoot at the time despite the cold, storms and rain so it was fitting that he was shod. According to the Shoe Man, Wren has big feet.
He said "The average size for a 12 month old is a 4 and a half and he is a good 5 already."
I commented that it was because he has a longer big toe that sticks out quite a bit. I have posted a picture of Wren in his new stride rites. I bought them because they are as flexible as a porn star. Okay, wrong simile for a baby blog. Anyway, thy are very flexible.
Fries and root beer
Because I was tired and in the car already, we went to fetch Josh from work. No, actually it was because we wanted to see Josh and spare him a bus ride home in the stormy traffic. On the way home we bought Frost a Dicks burger and fries from The Big Dicks at Queen Anne. Wren was sad about being confined in the car so Josh gave him some foam from the top of the root beer float. After that he was very quiet and able to be entertained by a couple of fries until he got home for his healthy squash and quinoa dinner.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Baby co-op, playdate and a French Maid
"I have always wondered why babies scream so much louder than humans. Maybe its because their pressure of excitement is higher?" Alexander (Age 7)
Wren was in fine form this afternoon when we went to fetch Frost and Alexander from school. Alexander ran up to the car saying "hello Wren" and Frost arrived yelling and hooting and swinging his backpack. From that moment on Wren decided to scream his own version of shouting. He was not unprovoked because Frost has the mistaken impression that shrieking back will be entertaining. It is not.
Somewhere on the way home I decided we needed an easy and crowd pleasing dinner so I stopped at Safeway for hot dogs, buns and instant cornbread mix. How the mighty have fallen. In 1996 I was cooking and grinding my own soybeans to make tofu and feeding a green tree frog from my hot compost heap. Now I am reading The Erotic Secrets of a French Maid (I kid you not, most of my excitement happens between the leaves, not sheets) which is a library book and am feeding my son hot dogs. These are not even Whole Foods nitrite free happy turkey hot dogs. They come from the aisle with that liquid cheese and meat that you can peel.
Anyway, Wren is well and enjoyed his baby group except for the part where I went to the discussion group without him for ten minutes. He also enjoyed his afternoon except for the part where I left him with a babysitter, awake, for an hour and a half. Yes, there is a theme here. Wren is very attached to me and is confident and exploratory and happy if I am within sight. If not, he cries and looks for me. It is tiring. At times he clings to my legs and follows along crawling and crying until I pick him up. This makes cooking difficult. I know this is a phase but I would like him to be a little more relaxed around people he knows so "I can go out without anxiety and return to a baby who is happy not crying and fixing me with gulping guilty stares.
What else? Oh, my blood test results came back showing I am once again calcium deficient. It seems whenever I go off calcium supplements it takes only a couple of months for calcium deficiency to rear again. I am taking that chalky supplement at night.
Yesterday, old family friends Brenda and James visited. It was very good to see them. It is surprising how important friends and connections from "home" are for the psyche. I feel very energized and appreciated for who I am after their visit and hope they enjoyed meeting the children. Yesterday, was a big digital day so Frost was not ultra-social. He had just noticed Joshua had bought and installed an X-Box 360 and the High-def cable had been turned on. As a result we could interest James in the intensity of our TV signal on the new screen as well as keep Frost mesmerized with HD eye-candy that came free with the X-box. He is now playing breeding pinata and feeding them fruit:
"I am making a garden of pinatas and building them houses and letting them have marriage cos then they can make babies" Frost (6)
Uh oh. I hope he doesn't do the math on his birth certificate.
Wren was in fine form this afternoon when we went to fetch Frost and Alexander from school. Alexander ran up to the car saying "hello Wren" and Frost arrived yelling and hooting and swinging his backpack. From that moment on Wren decided to scream his own version of shouting. He was not unprovoked because Frost has the mistaken impression that shrieking back will be entertaining. It is not.
Somewhere on the way home I decided we needed an easy and crowd pleasing dinner so I stopped at Safeway for hot dogs, buns and instant cornbread mix. How the mighty have fallen. In 1996 I was cooking and grinding my own soybeans to make tofu and feeding a green tree frog from my hot compost heap. Now I am reading The Erotic Secrets of a French Maid (I kid you not, most of my excitement happens between the leaves, not sheets) which is a library book and am feeding my son hot dogs. These are not even Whole Foods nitrite free happy turkey hot dogs. They come from the aisle with that liquid cheese and meat that you can peel.
Anyway, Wren is well and enjoyed his baby group except for the part where I went to the discussion group without him for ten minutes. He also enjoyed his afternoon except for the part where I left him with a babysitter, awake, for an hour and a half. Yes, there is a theme here. Wren is very attached to me and is confident and exploratory and happy if I am within sight. If not, he cries and looks for me. It is tiring. At times he clings to my legs and follows along crawling and crying until I pick him up. This makes cooking difficult. I know this is a phase but I would like him to be a little more relaxed around people he knows so "I can go out without anxiety and return to a baby who is happy not crying and fixing me with gulping guilty stares.
What else? Oh, my blood test results came back showing I am once again calcium deficient. It seems whenever I go off calcium supplements it takes only a couple of months for calcium deficiency to rear again. I am taking that chalky supplement at night.
Yesterday, old family friends Brenda and James visited. It was very good to see them. It is surprising how important friends and connections from "home" are for the psyche. I feel very energized and appreciated for who I am after their visit and hope they enjoyed meeting the children. Yesterday, was a big digital day so Frost was not ultra-social. He had just noticed Joshua had bought and installed an X-Box 360 and the High-def cable had been turned on. As a result we could interest James in the intensity of our TV signal on the new screen as well as keep Frost mesmerized with HD eye-candy that came free with the X-box. He is now playing breeding pinata and feeding them fruit:
"I am making a garden of pinatas and building them houses and letting them have marriage cos then they can make babies" Frost (6)
Uh oh. I hope he doesn't do the math on his birth certificate.
Monday, October 15, 2007
The "how is his heart?" question (10 monthday)
This afternoon Wren and I got together with some babies and parents from our Listening-mothers Infant group. It was lovely to see the babies so big and social. At the group I was asked a question which has come up a lot of late. "So, how is his heart doing?" I have been asked on 2 phone calls and by 4 other people in the past 24 hours.
This question is difficult to answer. Wren's heart is not entirely normal. He still has aortic stenosis (mild), a bicuspid aortic valve, a mild coarctation of the aortic arch and the most serious concern - a left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOT obstruction). His left ventricle has been mildly thickened since before he was born and remains pretty constant at a slight thickening.
The great news is that he seems to cope very well with these obstructions. If his stamina is reduced we have not seen it yet and we are unaware of any imminent problems like high blood pressure, regurgitation, problems with the valve or strain on his left ventricle.
However, we are not sure what these obstructions will mean in the long term. We have not been told that they will go away or become insignificant. We have not been told that they will require intervention. All conversations are along the lines of "if he shows the need we will do X and Y".
So far, he seems to be in the "chronic" state with his CHD - meaning he is pretty stable and will need monitoring every 6 months or so unless something changes. This is pretty hard to live with when you think about it but since Wren looks so well, is thriving developmentally and is clearly happy and 'healthy' we do not worry much day to day.
IF he did need surgery it would probably be open heart surgery to address the LVOT which can damage the aortic valve if turbulence is severe. Our cardiologist said they would be cautious about suggesting that surgery because it has a significant risk of causing scar tissue at the site of the repair which leads to further complications. We hope Wren does not need the repair.
Thank you for your concern, those who asked!
New games
Wren turned 10 months by stealth yesterday. He continues to surprise me with new games and cleverness. Today he continued his "I feed you, you feed me" routine and tried to feed me water from a cup in the bath. I had just shown him how to hold a little plastic cup and drink from it and he had taken a series of gulps while holding it himself. I showed him the sign "drink" and opened my mouth. He brought the (now empty) cup to me and pushed it to my mouth with a huge smile.
Bathing together
This is the second night we have bathed together and its fun. He likes to stand in the bath (probably because it is deep) and splashing makes him laugh. He is fascinated by the stream of water falling from a bottle and makes serious attempts to hold it. He also laughs at the gulping noise of air exiting an empty bottle pushed underwater. He squeals and laughs.
The Later Bedtime Attempt
Tonight, Wren went to bed at 8pm. This is part of the plan to get him to sleep past 5.30am but also in anticipation of daylight saving causing his current sleep habits to go awry. I really cannot go back to the days of 4.30am wakenings. It is just not going to happen. We all ate dinner together in a strange parody of a Top Chef challenge - my intention for us all to eat the same thing failed and we all ate different meals with similar ingredients:
1) Me: bunch of Kale with red pasta sauce, vegies and chicken
2) Wren: bits of Kale, vegies, chicken.
3) Frost: vegies, red pasta sauce, pasta, vegie meat balls.
4) Josh: pasta, vegies, chicken, alfredo/mushroom sauce.
This question is difficult to answer. Wren's heart is not entirely normal. He still has aortic stenosis (mild), a bicuspid aortic valve, a mild coarctation of the aortic arch and the most serious concern - a left ventricular outflow tract obstruction (LVOT obstruction). His left ventricle has been mildly thickened since before he was born and remains pretty constant at a slight thickening.
The great news is that he seems to cope very well with these obstructions. If his stamina is reduced we have not seen it yet and we are unaware of any imminent problems like high blood pressure, regurgitation, problems with the valve or strain on his left ventricle.
However, we are not sure what these obstructions will mean in the long term. We have not been told that they will go away or become insignificant. We have not been told that they will require intervention. All conversations are along the lines of "if he shows the need we will do X and Y".
So far, he seems to be in the "chronic" state with his CHD - meaning he is pretty stable and will need monitoring every 6 months or so unless something changes. This is pretty hard to live with when you think about it but since Wren looks so well, is thriving developmentally and is clearly happy and 'healthy' we do not worry much day to day.
IF he did need surgery it would probably be open heart surgery to address the LVOT which can damage the aortic valve if turbulence is severe. Our cardiologist said they would be cautious about suggesting that surgery because it has a significant risk of causing scar tissue at the site of the repair which leads to further complications. We hope Wren does not need the repair.
Thank you for your concern, those who asked!
New games
Wren turned 10 months by stealth yesterday. He continues to surprise me with new games and cleverness. Today he continued his "I feed you, you feed me" routine and tried to feed me water from a cup in the bath. I had just shown him how to hold a little plastic cup and drink from it and he had taken a series of gulps while holding it himself. I showed him the sign "drink" and opened my mouth. He brought the (now empty) cup to me and pushed it to my mouth with a huge smile.
Bathing together
This is the second night we have bathed together and its fun. He likes to stand in the bath (probably because it is deep) and splashing makes him laugh. He is fascinated by the stream of water falling from a bottle and makes serious attempts to hold it. He also laughs at the gulping noise of air exiting an empty bottle pushed underwater. He squeals and laughs.
The Later Bedtime Attempt
Tonight, Wren went to bed at 8pm. This is part of the plan to get him to sleep past 5.30am but also in anticipation of daylight saving causing his current sleep habits to go awry. I really cannot go back to the days of 4.30am wakenings. It is just not going to happen. We all ate dinner together in a strange parody of a Top Chef challenge - my intention for us all to eat the same thing failed and we all ate different meals with similar ingredients:
1) Me: bunch of Kale with red pasta sauce, vegies and chicken
2) Wren: bits of Kale, vegies, chicken.
3) Frost: vegies, red pasta sauce, pasta, vegie meat balls.
4) Josh: pasta, vegies, chicken, alfredo/mushroom sauce.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Molars, games and interesting noises
Wren is actually growing those molars I have been blaming things on for ages. The bottom ones continue to swell but the cusps of the upper ones have cut through. Strangely, this does not seem to be causing the sleep disruptions of previous teeth so I am not making a big deal over it.
Making talking noises
Wren likes to chatter when I talk to him. He mumbles and murmurs his part of the conversation and copies simple sounds like "ma-ma" "ba ba" "da da", tongue clicks, shssss and some others. "lyah la ya la ylala" he says.
Wren understands a lot. If you say "hi" and wave, he waves back. He understands these phrases at least in part: "Where are the fishies?" "Kitties?" "Frost" "Want to eat?" and quite a few others.
He is very opinionated about what he wants - especially when he wants me to pick him up. He grabs my leg and shout-cries loudly. Other times he reaches out his arms with plaintive head rolling.
Doors and Drawers and Bon Ami
He is an avid explorer, opening cupboards, doors and drawers and trying to eat the Bon Ami scourer he found in the kitchen cupboard this morning. We bought more babyproofing clips and traps at the hardware store yesterday and will be putting some in today. He is also exploring what he can copy us doing. Yesterday i was feeing him peas one by one and he picked up a pea and put it in my mouth. After that we played "feed each other peas".
Clapping and turning
He has learned to clap in the past few days and really enjoys how excited I get when I clap and then he claps. Along similar lines, he waves if you wave at him and say "hi". Its a flappy wave but he feels very pleased and smiles a bit toothy tongue-filled smile and says "heee".
After weeks of turning him around to prevent head-first plunges off the bed he has recently learned to turns around to go "feet first" off beds and couches. He still intends to go head-first downstairs and must be prevented. He climbs upstairs rapidly.
Sleep stuff
He is sleeping better. He goes to bed shortly after 7pm and rouses sometime after midnight when Joshua is still awake. Most times he settles himself back to sleep at that time. He wakes again around 3.30am and I nurse him. After that he makes it until 5.30am(ish) when I go in and nurse and snuggle him until we get up about 5.45-6am. Last night I learned the foul news that daylight saving ending will pull time forward again so Wren's current 5.30am waking will be back to 4.30am. That means I have about 3 weeks to drift him to an 8pm bedtime with hopes of a 6.30am wake-time pre daylight savings. Wish me luck!
Playing Games
Wren is starting to play games with us and some of his toys. For a month or more he has been able to put balls into the top of his baby-ball rolling toy. He picks up a ball, crawls to it, reaches up and puts the ball in the top and then tries to catch it as it rolls around the track. He repeats this 2 or 3 times before tiring.
After diaper change he always rolls over and crawls away at maximum speed to our bedroom where he climbs on the bed and plays his version of "war" (aka pillowfight) by pouncing dramatically onto the quilt and lying facedown for a while before popping up with a smile. He will also pounce on an unsuspecting person's face which can be quite painful for all concerned.
At infant co-op last week he played "peek-a-boo" for the first time, putting his face into a scarf and peeking out when we said "peep o".
A bit from an email
Here is something I wrote to my friend Natasha which has a bit more info on some things Wrenish:
"Wren is doing fabulously. After a period of fever when he made me anxious about his heart by being clammy and huffing a bit when he exercised, all is back to normal. He has learned to clap, open and close cupboard doors, chatter nonsensical stuff, play games like peek-a-boo and chase-crawl and understand lots of things I say (bang, splash-splash, bouncy?, eat? nap-time, night-night, "where's Frost?", fishies, where's kitty? among others). He is very cute to look at since his face is thinning out. He can stand unassisted but shows no inclination to walk.
I would describe him as a serious but happy baby. His only downside is a very strong attachment to me. He has started to cry and reach out his arms if I hand him to Josh, let alone a babysitter or stranger. This makes all my newfound cash for babysitting money a bit more difficult to spend. I am hoping he becomes familiar with the babysitter and the transitions are easier."
And Frost writes a peculiar poem
"I am a pretty good singer" says Frost, coming in from his bedroom. "I have made up a poem" He starts to sing the poem to me. Here it is:
"If we were playing a game
and someone died
then times would collide
The game would be played
underground
The person would be buried
in a dirty mound
of the earth
so that game would be played,
underground
yeah!
and we would have to play with ants
and darth vaders underpants"
I think the message of this post is that while Wren is becoming more intelligible, 6 year olds are still a mystery to me.
Making talking noises
Wren likes to chatter when I talk to him. He mumbles and murmurs his part of the conversation and copies simple sounds like "ma-ma" "ba ba" "da da", tongue clicks, shssss and some others. "lyah la ya la ylala" he says.
Wren understands a lot. If you say "hi" and wave, he waves back. He understands these phrases at least in part: "Where are the fishies?" "Kitties?" "Frost" "Want to eat?" and quite a few others.
He is very opinionated about what he wants - especially when he wants me to pick him up. He grabs my leg and shout-cries loudly. Other times he reaches out his arms with plaintive head rolling.
Doors and Drawers and Bon Ami
He is an avid explorer, opening cupboards, doors and drawers and trying to eat the Bon Ami scourer he found in the kitchen cupboard this morning. We bought more babyproofing clips and traps at the hardware store yesterday and will be putting some in today. He is also exploring what he can copy us doing. Yesterday i was feeing him peas one by one and he picked up a pea and put it in my mouth. After that we played "feed each other peas".
Clapping and turning
He has learned to clap in the past few days and really enjoys how excited I get when I clap and then he claps. Along similar lines, he waves if you wave at him and say "hi". Its a flappy wave but he feels very pleased and smiles a bit toothy tongue-filled smile and says "heee".
After weeks of turning him around to prevent head-first plunges off the bed he has recently learned to turns around to go "feet first" off beds and couches. He still intends to go head-first downstairs and must be prevented. He climbs upstairs rapidly.
Sleep stuff
He is sleeping better. He goes to bed shortly after 7pm and rouses sometime after midnight when Joshua is still awake. Most times he settles himself back to sleep at that time. He wakes again around 3.30am and I nurse him. After that he makes it until 5.30am(ish) when I go in and nurse and snuggle him until we get up about 5.45-6am. Last night I learned the foul news that daylight saving ending will pull time forward again so Wren's current 5.30am waking will be back to 4.30am. That means I have about 3 weeks to drift him to an 8pm bedtime with hopes of a 6.30am wake-time pre daylight savings. Wish me luck!
Playing Games
Wren is starting to play games with us and some of his toys. For a month or more he has been able to put balls into the top of his baby-ball rolling toy. He picks up a ball, crawls to it, reaches up and puts the ball in the top and then tries to catch it as it rolls around the track. He repeats this 2 or 3 times before tiring.
After diaper change he always rolls over and crawls away at maximum speed to our bedroom where he climbs on the bed and plays his version of "war" (aka pillowfight) by pouncing dramatically onto the quilt and lying facedown for a while before popping up with a smile. He will also pounce on an unsuspecting person's face which can be quite painful for all concerned.
At infant co-op last week he played "peek-a-boo" for the first time, putting his face into a scarf and peeking out when we said "peep o".
A bit from an email
Here is something I wrote to my friend Natasha which has a bit more info on some things Wrenish:
"Wren is doing fabulously. After a period of fever when he made me anxious about his heart by being clammy and huffing a bit when he exercised, all is back to normal. He has learned to clap, open and close cupboard doors, chatter nonsensical stuff, play games like peek-a-boo and chase-crawl and understand lots of things I say (bang, splash-splash, bouncy?, eat? nap-time, night-night, "where's Frost?", fishies, where's kitty? among others). He is very cute to look at since his face is thinning out. He can stand unassisted but shows no inclination to walk.
I would describe him as a serious but happy baby. His only downside is a very strong attachment to me. He has started to cry and reach out his arms if I hand him to Josh, let alone a babysitter or stranger. This makes all my newfound cash for babysitting money a bit more difficult to spend. I am hoping he becomes familiar with the babysitter and the transitions are easier."
And Frost writes a peculiar poem
"I am a pretty good singer" says Frost, coming in from his bedroom. "I have made up a poem" He starts to sing the poem to me. Here it is:
"If we were playing a game
and someone died
then times would collide
The game would be played
underground
The person would be buried
in a dirty mound
of the earth
so that game would be played,
underground
yeah!
and we would have to play with ants
and darth vaders underpants"
I think the message of this post is that while Wren is becoming more intelligible, 6 year olds are still a mystery to me.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Brickcon
Wren stayed home with Joshua while Frost and I went to Alexander's 7th birthday at the Ice Rink. Frost had never tried ice skating and found it difficult and wobbly. I took him around a few times but after half an hour he wanted to take off his skates and stop. That was okay - he said it was fun but scary. The big highlight was a candy machine with a claw which allowed you to grab a random piece of candy for 25c. On one occasion the machine returned TWO quarters instead of one. Zephyr and Frost found another quarter abandoned in another coin return and begged for another quarter to buy a tube of candy. AFter the birthday party Zephyr came home with us and went to Brickcon - a lego convention at the Seattle Center Pavilion. We met Alexander there and then played in the fountain.
First, here is a picture of Wren standing alone. He doesn't do it all the time but is quite stable when he wants to be. He has no intention of walking anytime soon but he is quite comfortable upright and cruising along tables and chairs. Unfortunately all the uprightness and agility have led to table climbing, stair climbing, chair clambering and lots of falling over. This morning Frost pushed him off the coffee table and he bit his lip with lots of bleeding.
The following pictures show Frost, Zephyr and Alexander in awe at Brickcon. They were overwhelmed to the point of running from exhibit to exhibit in a random way shouting about things they saw. They were most impressed by the poses and activities of minifigures. The structures were amazing but not as captivating for the kids. I let each one buy a bag of mixed lego and a custom lego weapon and helmet from Brick Arms .
Frost pointed at everything and talked non-stop. He had flushed cheeks and couldn't focus much in his excitement. In this picture he is pointing out what some minifigures are doing in the castle army.
And in the next one they are admiring a Skeleton Army. Frost wants hundreds of storm troopers for a storm trooper army.
In the final picture they are looking at a shop selling customized Lego STar Wars minifigures. Frost is begging me to buy General Grievous or his bodyguard or a storm trooper.
First, here is a picture of Wren standing alone. He doesn't do it all the time but is quite stable when he wants to be. He has no intention of walking anytime soon but he is quite comfortable upright and cruising along tables and chairs. Unfortunately all the uprightness and agility have led to table climbing, stair climbing, chair clambering and lots of falling over. This morning Frost pushed him off the coffee table and he bit his lip with lots of bleeding.
The following pictures show Frost, Zephyr and Alexander in awe at Brickcon. They were overwhelmed to the point of running from exhibit to exhibit in a random way shouting about things they saw. They were most impressed by the poses and activities of minifigures. The structures were amazing but not as captivating for the kids. I let each one buy a bag of mixed lego and a custom lego weapon and helmet from Brick Arms .
Frost pointed at everything and talked non-stop. He had flushed cheeks and couldn't focus much in his excitement. In this picture he is pointing out what some minifigures are doing in the castle army.
And in the next one they are admiring a Skeleton Army. Frost wants hundreds of storm troopers for a storm trooper army.
In the final picture they are looking at a shop selling customized Lego STar Wars minifigures. Frost is begging me to buy General Grievous or his bodyguard or a storm trooper.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Wren wants to feed himself
After a week or so of mealtime combat where Wren throws food, turns his head, wrinkles up his nose and makes raspberries and tries to climb out of the high chair as I feed him I have discovered the cause. Wren wants to feed himself.
Last night I gave him chicken, broccoli and potato pieces and he ate them all and would have eaten more but I ran out. He ate a handful of garden raspberries for snack. For breakfast, refusing my mango apple puree, he ate oat Os, half a banana and little bits of grape. He is very intent as he eats... chasing slippery pieces of banana around the tray until he captures them.
Although I wipe him down in the highchair when he is done I am invariably coated with slimy food when I take him out because some of it misses his mouth and goes down into the creases of his shirt and pants. Yummy. I refuse to change 3 times a day so my left shoulder is always coated with food remains. Stylish, huh? It is worse today because I am wearing black.
Outside its cold, raining and very very much Fall. We put up our decorations for Halloween and Frost chose his costume - he is going to be a ghoul.
This morning Frost lost his 5th baby tooth. Wren has grown 8 baby teeth and lower molars continue to swell ominously.
Last night Wren woke numerous times before midnight because Kitty Haiku was trapped in his room. I nursed him at 12.40 and he slept till 5am but was so tired when I went to get him that I put him back in bed after a nursing and he slept till 6.20am. A fabulous sleep in for me! AS a result I haven't had time to clean the house before breakfast. Oh, the price I pay for indolence and sloth.
Last night I gave him chicken, broccoli and potato pieces and he ate them all and would have eaten more but I ran out. He ate a handful of garden raspberries for snack. For breakfast, refusing my mango apple puree, he ate oat Os, half a banana and little bits of grape. He is very intent as he eats... chasing slippery pieces of banana around the tray until he captures them.
Although I wipe him down in the highchair when he is done I am invariably coated with slimy food when I take him out because some of it misses his mouth and goes down into the creases of his shirt and pants. Yummy. I refuse to change 3 times a day so my left shoulder is always coated with food remains. Stylish, huh? It is worse today because I am wearing black.
Outside its cold, raining and very very much Fall. We put up our decorations for Halloween and Frost chose his costume - he is going to be a ghoul.
This morning Frost lost his 5th baby tooth. Wren has grown 8 baby teeth and lower molars continue to swell ominously.
Last night Wren woke numerous times before midnight because Kitty Haiku was trapped in his room. I nursed him at 12.40 and he slept till 5am but was so tired when I went to get him that I put him back in bed after a nursing and he slept till 6.20am. A fabulous sleep in for me! AS a result I haven't had time to clean the house before breakfast. Oh, the price I pay for indolence and sloth.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
The problem with lego
Is that babies like to chew it. It hurts when you kneel on it. You kneel on it. You realize its everywhere. Its in piles. It takes ages to dig through the huge bin to find a white wheel or a left arm or a 2X2 in white. You decide to sort it and then when you are half sorted you have to control it and manage it and ....
I thought this article was very funny and close to home as Frost is besotted with Lego:
It comes from here
QUOTE:
Here's a description of an evolution of lego collection sorting. It might
be yours, at least in parts. It's certainly been mine.
I might turn this into an essay some day, but for now it will have to begin
life as a series of unsupported claims. If you have any comments or
additions, toss'em in.
The Evolution of Lego Sorting
-----------------------------
Let's assume you start your lego collection like most of us did: with one
set.
1. You don't sort your Lego. You just keep them in the box they came in.
(Then, over time, you get another set, then another, then another.
And your pile of bricks grows. How do you cope?)
2. You start sorting your Lego. You sort it by set.
(Your collection grows.)
3. You give up on individual set boxes and toss all your Lego in a big
storage bin or a Lego denim bag, or a couple of your large set boxes. You
become very familiar with the sound of someone digging through large bricks
looking for a 1x1 transparent red plate.
(Your collection grows.)
4. You begin to sort your Lego by category: normal-looking bricks in one
set box, other pieces in another box.
(And grows.)
5. Ok, you realize you actually have to sort it. You decide to sort the
obvious way: by color.
(And grows.)
6. You keep sorting by color, but you get pickier about how you do it,
and you start filtering out by type for the first time: probably the
first things you sort out by type are minifigs and wheels. You realize
you already had baseplates sorted out separately.
(Let's just assume at this point that between every paragraph, your
keep adding lego to your collection.)
7. You cave in and actually get a storage system. Maybe it's rubbermaid
bins, or piles of blue buckets, or fishing tackle boxes, or ziplocks. But
now you've got a system.
8. You grow weary of digging through all the yellow bricks looking for that
one specialized yellow piece somewhere in 2 cubic feet of yellow. But you
think of how much work it's going to take to split by part and you don't do
it.
9. Sorting becomes difficult enough that you decide, in some cases, not to
break some sets down and put them in your main pile of lego... instead, you
store them as a set, because that set is so cool just the way it is. (Ok,
so this set is from the 80s...) The pieces for that set are either in their
box, or in a ziplock or something. Congratulations, you've just invented
Set Archiving, and now you have two ways you store your Lego: broken down
by parts, and archived by set.
10. You give up and decide to sort your parts by type rather than by color.
You go get more bins or tackle boxes or whatever your container of choice
is, you dedicate an evening or a weekend or a month to it, and you split by
type.
11. You have now invented your own Lego categorization system. You have no
doubt separated out bricks, plates, wheels, minifigs, slopes, and so on,
but you've also clumped "things with curves" together, and doors and
windshields together. You also have a category called "misc". Your
categories, amazingly, don't look much like the LDraw categories.
12. You realize you have piles of stuff that don't fit easily into the
categorization system: RCX bricks, train track, those huge A-shaped
pieces, monorial supports, and rubber bands. You get a different sized
drawer system for stuff like that.
13. Your collection is now clearly housed in many different types of
containers ranging from buckets to drawers to bins to individual tackle box
components.
14. You begin to develop large piles of lego in various states of being
sorted, i.e:
the sorted stuff
the stuff you've kinda sorted and is ready to be put away
piles of lego you aren't going to sort because you think you'll use
it all to build something else anyway
lego sorted some other way than the way you sorted into drawers to see
if this way works better than that way did
your building projects
your new boxes of lego, some opened, some not
oh, and let's not forget your various models and MOCs
15. You begin to develop strong opinions on Plano vs. Stak-On and
Rubbermaid vs. Sterilite.
16. The original categories you made begin to follow this life cycle:
- They grow too large to fit into their container.
- You divide the category into two categories in order to get them
to fit into the containers... one for each category. (Now you
have windshields, doors, and windows, each as a different category
of pieces, each in their own containers.)
- You store those subcategories together, but as parts of them become
too numerous or too hard to find, you split them out. So your tackle
boxes now have a different compartment for each type of door.
You realize that at this point the endgame is that you will have a
different compartment for every type of piece you have.
16.5. Every once in a while, you open a drawer you haven't opened in a
while and discover that you've been sorting some piece into two separate
places in your drawers. This throws your categorization for a loop.
How exactly do you categorize the 1x2 plate with the little robot-looking
thing on it? Oh no... partsref doesn't have it either, augh!
17. You rearrange your house so that you can fit your storage system into,
hopefully, just one room.
18. You give up on the "one compartment for every piece" theory because you
can't keep up with that. Instead, you start putting some of the similar
things into shoebox-sized bins. The way you decide what to
compartmentalize and what to put into bins together is to think about how
long it takes to find an individual element. It's ok to dig through a pile
of windshields looking for the trans yellow blacktron hood. It's not ok to
dig through a pile of slopes looking for the specialized corner cap slope.
18.5. You document your categories so you don't get lost.
19. You develop a multi-stage sorting system. It may take a piece several
hops before it ends up in its final resting spot, but it's a bit more
efficient to sort this way, and you can do some of it while watching a
video.
20. Bizarrely enough, you actually give up and go back to sorting by color.
Only this time, you sort by color after sorting by piece. So you now have
a bin for yellow 1x3 plates, and a bin for black 1x3 plates, and so on.
21. Finally you create an "overflow" system of buckets, where, if the bin
of 1x3 yellow plates is full, you just any additional ones into that
overflow bucket, along with other plates. (One of the first indicators that
you should do this was that you didn't have a compartment big enough to hold
all your Lego horses...)
22. You begin to toss most pieces directly into overflow.
23. You now have what, to a stranger, would be a bizarre sorting system. You
have some parts thrown together in bins by type. You have some parts split
out with a separate bin for each part. You have some parts split out with
a separate bin for each color. You even have some parts split out by how
old they are: red 1x2s from the 60s, red 1x2s from the 70s, new red 1x2s
that hold really well, and all the other red 1x2s. And you have an
alphabetized pile of large buckets for the overflow pieces and another one
for the 1st stage of sorting.
23.5. That stranger would also think you were certifiably insane. Or at
least retentive.
24. You start looking for a new house. One with a large basement.
25. Vision recognition becomes interesting to you.
26. You begin to long for the day when you could sit at your desk and
actually reach every piece you owned without getting up.
27. You decide to keep a special set or two at your desk, away from the
huge sorting system, just to play with a few great sets without having
to sort them. And then you add another cool set. Pretty soon
you're digging through 3 inches of bricks trying to find that 1x1
transparent red plate and you think about sorting your bricks...
Of course, somewhere along the way, you probably quit buying just sets, and
started to do things like:
- Buy lego sets in bulk, to the point where you have 10s to 100s
of unopened boxes.
- Work on very large construction projects.
- Acquire other people's collections.
- Run large auctions over the net.
And those bring up entirely new sorting challenges.... but those won't
be written about tonight, at least not by me.
-r'm
Remy Evard / evard@mcs.anl.gov
I thought this article was very funny and close to home as Frost is besotted with Lego:
It comes from here
QUOTE:
Here's a description of an evolution of lego collection sorting. It might
be yours, at least in parts. It's certainly been mine.
I might turn this into an essay some day, but for now it will have to begin
life as a series of unsupported claims. If you have any comments or
additions, toss'em in.
The Evolution of Lego Sorting
-----------------------------
Let's assume you start your lego collection like most of us did: with one
set.
1. You don't sort your Lego. You just keep them in the box they came in.
(Then, over time, you get another set, then another, then another.
And your pile of bricks grows. How do you cope?)
2. You start sorting your Lego. You sort it by set.
(Your collection grows.)
3. You give up on individual set boxes and toss all your Lego in a big
storage bin or a Lego denim bag, or a couple of your large set boxes. You
become very familiar with the sound of someone digging through large bricks
looking for a 1x1 transparent red plate.
(Your collection grows.)
4. You begin to sort your Lego by category: normal-looking bricks in one
set box, other pieces in another box.
(And grows.)
5. Ok, you realize you actually have to sort it. You decide to sort the
obvious way: by color.
(And grows.)
6. You keep sorting by color, but you get pickier about how you do it,
and you start filtering out by type for the first time: probably the
first things you sort out by type are minifigs and wheels. You realize
you already had baseplates sorted out separately.
(Let's just assume at this point that between every paragraph, your
keep adding lego to your collection.)
7. You cave in and actually get a storage system. Maybe it's rubbermaid
bins, or piles of blue buckets, or fishing tackle boxes, or ziplocks. But
now you've got a system.
8. You grow weary of digging through all the yellow bricks looking for that
one specialized yellow piece somewhere in 2 cubic feet of yellow. But you
think of how much work it's going to take to split by part and you don't do
it.
9. Sorting becomes difficult enough that you decide, in some cases, not to
break some sets down and put them in your main pile of lego... instead, you
store them as a set, because that set is so cool just the way it is. (Ok,
so this set is from the 80s...) The pieces for that set are either in their
box, or in a ziplock or something. Congratulations, you've just invented
Set Archiving, and now you have two ways you store your Lego: broken down
by parts, and archived by set.
10. You give up and decide to sort your parts by type rather than by color.
You go get more bins or tackle boxes or whatever your container of choice
is, you dedicate an evening or a weekend or a month to it, and you split by
type.
11. You have now invented your own Lego categorization system. You have no
doubt separated out bricks, plates, wheels, minifigs, slopes, and so on,
but you've also clumped "things with curves" together, and doors and
windshields together. You also have a category called "misc". Your
categories, amazingly, don't look much like the LDraw categories.
12. You realize you have piles of stuff that don't fit easily into the
categorization system: RCX bricks, train track, those huge A-shaped
pieces, monorial supports, and rubber bands. You get a different sized
drawer system for stuff like that.
13. Your collection is now clearly housed in many different types of
containers ranging from buckets to drawers to bins to individual tackle box
components.
14. You begin to develop large piles of lego in various states of being
sorted, i.e:
the sorted stuff
the stuff you've kinda sorted and is ready to be put away
piles of lego you aren't going to sort because you think you'll use
it all to build something else anyway
lego sorted some other way than the way you sorted into drawers to see
if this way works better than that way did
your building projects
your new boxes of lego, some opened, some not
oh, and let's not forget your various models and MOCs
15. You begin to develop strong opinions on Plano vs. Stak-On and
Rubbermaid vs. Sterilite.
16. The original categories you made begin to follow this life cycle:
- They grow too large to fit into their container.
- You divide the category into two categories in order to get them
to fit into the containers... one for each category. (Now you
have windshields, doors, and windows, each as a different category
of pieces, each in their own containers.)
- You store those subcategories together, but as parts of them become
too numerous or too hard to find, you split them out. So your tackle
boxes now have a different compartment for each type of door.
You realize that at this point the endgame is that you will have a
different compartment for every type of piece you have.
16.5. Every once in a while, you open a drawer you haven't opened in a
while and discover that you've been sorting some piece into two separate
places in your drawers. This throws your categorization for a loop.
How exactly do you categorize the 1x2 plate with the little robot-looking
thing on it? Oh no... partsref doesn't have it either, augh!
17. You rearrange your house so that you can fit your storage system into,
hopefully, just one room.
18. You give up on the "one compartment for every piece" theory because you
can't keep up with that. Instead, you start putting some of the similar
things into shoebox-sized bins. The way you decide what to
compartmentalize and what to put into bins together is to think about how
long it takes to find an individual element. It's ok to dig through a pile
of windshields looking for the trans yellow blacktron hood. It's not ok to
dig through a pile of slopes looking for the specialized corner cap slope.
18.5. You document your categories so you don't get lost.
19. You develop a multi-stage sorting system. It may take a piece several
hops before it ends up in its final resting spot, but it's a bit more
efficient to sort this way, and you can do some of it while watching a
video.
20. Bizarrely enough, you actually give up and go back to sorting by color.
Only this time, you sort by color after sorting by piece. So you now have
a bin for yellow 1x3 plates, and a bin for black 1x3 plates, and so on.
21. Finally you create an "overflow" system of buckets, where, if the bin
of 1x3 yellow plates is full, you just any additional ones into that
overflow bucket, along with other plates. (One of the first indicators that
you should do this was that you didn't have a compartment big enough to hold
all your Lego horses...)
22. You begin to toss most pieces directly into overflow.
23. You now have what, to a stranger, would be a bizarre sorting system. You
have some parts thrown together in bins by type. You have some parts split
out with a separate bin for each part. You have some parts split out with
a separate bin for each color. You even have some parts split out by how
old they are: red 1x2s from the 60s, red 1x2s from the 70s, new red 1x2s
that hold really well, and all the other red 1x2s. And you have an
alphabetized pile of large buckets for the overflow pieces and another one
for the 1st stage of sorting.
23.5. That stranger would also think you were certifiably insane. Or at
least retentive.
24. You start looking for a new house. One with a large basement.
25. Vision recognition becomes interesting to you.
26. You begin to long for the day when you could sit at your desk and
actually reach every piece you owned without getting up.
27. You decide to keep a special set or two at your desk, away from the
huge sorting system, just to play with a few great sets without having
to sort them. And then you add another cool set. Pretty soon
you're digging through 3 inches of bricks trying to find that 1x1
transparent red plate and you think about sorting your bricks...
Of course, somewhere along the way, you probably quit buying just sets, and
started to do things like:
- Buy lego sets in bulk, to the point where you have 10s to 100s
of unopened boxes.
- Work on very large construction projects.
- Acquire other people's collections.
- Run large auctions over the net.
And those bring up entirely new sorting challenges.... but those won't
be written about tonight, at least not by me.
-r'm
Remy Evard / evard@mcs.anl.gov
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