Childhood Antics

Linus as Woody from Toy Story for Haloween

2011-11-01T11:49:00.001-04:00

Linus wanted to be Woody from Toy Story for Halloween. It's understandable given that we have watched Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 2 dozens of times in the past few weeks (the original only once). Lynn made the vest and scoured his closet for the appropriate clothes.

He even has a cowboy hat. It's an interpretation given that the vest is a dalmatian print instead of a cow print. Linus doesn't have a snake in his boot, or boots for that matter.

After some intensive training to teach him to say trick or treat, we went out into the neighborhood. It turns out it is relatively easy to teach Linus something when there is an immediate reward of candy during the process. Finally Lynn and Linus devoured the take.

Happy Halloween!

Linus captured experimenting with spooky science in the Community News

2011-10-31T15:09:00.001-04:00

Linus and Lynn got to perform a spooky science experiment at the Delaware Childrens Museum last week where they made slime from glue and borax and food coloring. Linus' awed expression was caught by a Community News photographer. He's in the third picture in at the link.

I am perfectly happen to encourage his fascination with science, even spooky science.

Linus sends a message

2011-09-08T13:42:00.001-04:00

I am not sure where he got this from but last night suddenly Linus wanted to send me a message. I suppose he has seen us send text messages or discuss it so he wanted to do one.

He was playing at the computer and out of the blue says, "Daddy, I am gonna send you a message." he furiously types at the keyboard, then stands on the chair and "grabs" an imaginary something from behind the monitor and then mimes throwing me the message. Across the room I catch the message, open it up like it is a little piece of imaginary paper and read it, "It says Linus loves Daddy.", and we all laugh. We spent the next half hour throwing imaginary messages back and forth. Some to Lynn, which read "Linus loves Mommy". I supplied the reading of the messages, since Linus wasn't to clear on their content, he was more interested in the typing and sending.

He has a good imagination.

Linus and Daddy at Pirate Day

2011-07-09T14:22:00.000-04:00

Duplo Blocks Pareidolia

2011-05-04T14:10:00.001-04:00

Do you see a face in this Duplo block house? We were just trying to make the tallest house using all of the blocks with Linus. We jammed that little car on the top, and lo and behold, the face appears.

World's Saftest Crib, made from DuPont Corian®

2011-05-04T10:24:00.007-04:00

A Corian® crib at The Mexican Museum of Design (warning horrible, useless flash website) was chosen as the Mexican public's favorite piece in the exhibition "Transform your ideas with Corian®". The design was presented as the World's Safest crib.

The crib is made of Corain®, obviously, and the article talk about it's design being possible because the material is thermo-formable.

I do like the ability to have the "bars" be evocative of branches and flowers and be uneven instead of just straight. It looks expensive though. Sure it is thermo-formable or can be cut this way but I would imagine that both materials and setup of a mold would be very expensive unless you made many cribs.

This design is by architects Jihei Aoki, Alejandro Cortes, Carlos Gonzalez and Constanze Martens.

The description describes and lists the safety attributes:

Safe because it is hypoallergenic.
Safe because a child's heads or arms cannot get stuck in the crib
Safe because is easily cleaned

I have to admit that I like it for it's design and look, but I am not too concerned with the other safety attributes except that it meets the appropriate level of safety for a child's crib.

(via DuPont News, archiRed, Nuestres Casas -translation, Fahrenheit Magazine,

Linus and the wheelbarrow

2011-04-11T11:03:00.002-04:00

Linus "borrowed" the neighbors kid-sized wheelbarrow for a stroll around the yard.

Linus wants the snow gone.

2011-02-19T11:58:00.004-05:00

Linus grabbed a shovel and tried chipping away at the last of the big snow piles left after the warm temperatures yesterday.

Above Linus takes delight in getting rid of the ice.

And more shoveling.

My little meteorologist confirms snow height measurement

2011-01-27T11:13:00.005-05:00

In the second wave of the snow last night we got about 7.5 inches. Linus helped to shovel this morning and then he confirmed my earlier measurement.

Overzealous law enforcement detonate suspicious toy pony!

2010-09-10T10:05:00.003-04:00

The bomb squad in Orange County Florida detonated a toy pony that had been left in a cul-de-sac near an elementary school. It is presented here as an example of rampant crazy fear and over zealous law enforcement overcoming common sense. Perhaps it belonged to a child nearby?

From the Orlando Sentinel:

A “suspicious” toy pony was blown up after it was found abandoned in the middle of a cul-de-sac near an Orange County elementary school this morning.
The FurReal pony, an expensive, life-like toy, was investigated as a possible explosive device after someone called Orange County deputies to report it. A robot inspected the toy before a pack of explosives was placed near the stuffed animal and detonated.

If we blew up every toy we found on our cul-de-sac it would be like the trenches of the on our street. I just assume that it belongs to one of our neighbors and sometimes put it back in the yard of the kid it belongs to. At no point do we blow it up.

(via BoingBoing)

Linus and the Sisyphean task

2010-09-06T11:03:00.004-04:00

While we were on vacation in August we visited the Chicago Botanic Garden. Linus found these giant stone spheres and proceed to reenact the punishment of Sisyphus.

I wonder if abaies or toddlers think it is cool that everything around them is giant or lifesized or whether it is frustrating. I suppose it depends on the circumstance. Maybe its just the way things are because that's all they have ever know thus far.

Linus gets a swingset

2010-09-06T09:36:00.007-04:00

We spent last weekend putting together a swing set for Linus in the backyard. By one reckoning it only took two days, or four if you count this weekend putting in the anchors or months if you count getting the parts and wrangling over placement and how to build it.

All we bought that was part of a "kit" were metal pieces that set the angle of the "A" pieces and would also serve to join the crossbeam to the legs. There were other metal pieces that were braces from the "A" parts to the long beam.

The other pieces we bought were the swing parts. Our neighbors had give us a hand-me-down toddler swing for Linus and we got adult swings with upgraded hardware for ourselves. Linus helped with some measurements.

We bought the lumber on Saturday and went to work. Four 4x4x10 for height. One 4x6x12 for the length. One 2x6x12 to cut in half for the cross piece of the A's on the side.

We assembled the A pieces using the metal bracket to guide the angle. It was just screwed in using 3" screws. We made sure they were identical and then cut the 2x6x12 in half, out those on each A to be identical and then cut off the ends at an angle to match the angle of the A's.

We drilled holes and attached all of the hardware to the long beam. Keep in mind that during the process we had to go to the hardware store twice after the initial trip to get more bolts and nuts and to get a long enough drill bit as well as more chain since the parts we got must have been for a shorter swing. The chains without extensions had Lynn hanging so high off the ground that her feet didn't touch.

One note: We upsized the legs from a traditional 8 ft to 10 ft for better swinging and we used 4x4's for sturdiness. We also used a 4x6 as the long piece for strength since we wanted our set to be 12ft long for three spots. there is plenty of room for us with this setup.

The hardest part was getting the long piece up on to the legs with only two people since we needed to keep the legs up. We had a convenient tree to lean one side upon and a step ladder on the other side. Still, there was some clever sliding up the legs to get it up there.

Once we side it onto the bolts we then spent a lot of time measuring distances to get it squared up. The instructions with the brackets gave less than helpful instructions to make sure the legs were square t the cross beam. I found that only one leg would square because wood isn't straight and ground isn't flat. We settled on eyeballing it and we measured the diagonal of the legs and the lengths of the legs to try to square the bottom. We did this several times. before we put all of the bolts on. After we did and each time we moved it to a new position.

We also got anchors to anchor the legs into the ground. When I swing I can lift a leg of the swingset with my momentum so we need anchors for everyone's safety. Your task: drill the 12 inch anchor all the way into rocky soil, good luck.

I was able to get two in, and broke one when it hit wood or rocks in the ground. I haven't finished this portion of the task. The anchors go in and then there is a strap with holes in it that gets screwed to the leg of the swingset. That is probably today's task.

The swing set in use:

I am glad we built it adult sized since we can swing with Linus and it is ready for him to grow into it.

My Little Scientist

2010-08-24T10:28:00.003-04:00

I have seen this in action:

Now to make sure I don't un-teach the scientific method that Linus already has innate.

(via electricbugaloo at Etsy)

Linus plays rough with Joe Biden Bobble Head at Blue Rocks game

2010-07-30T07:33:00.001-04:00

Linus went to his first Blue Rocks game yesterday. I was always going to go get a Joe Biden Bobble Head but then DelTweet scheduled their tweetup on the same day so it all worked out. Since Linus got a bobble head when he got there, he gets to play with it (until it gets broken I suppose).

Linus is not a Republican (as for as I know) or the media, but he sure plays rough with Joe. Like the Whitehouse sometimes, he is trying to stuff Joe back in the box.

Linus is not old enough to shave yet

2010-07-27T16:13:00.005-04:00

More ridiculousness from the advertising world of yesterday. Also acts as another example of how not to parent properly. No razors for babies! I wonder if this was as ridiculous back then as it is now.

Harold and the Purple Crayon updated

2010-07-26T12:42:00.004-04:00

The highligh text says FUN FACT: 'Harold and the Purple Crayon' was originally entitled 'Introduction to Differential Geometry for Kids'

I need to run out and get MATLAB for toddlers for Linus.

(via the excellent Abstruse Goose)

From the bad parenting department

2010-07-20T07:31:00.002-04:00

I hope that the snake in this picture was well fed before the picture and not after.

Given that pythons like to squeeze and eat tiny mammals, I am not sure I would have put my baby mammal so close to one.

Linus helps with the storm door pneumatic closer.

2010-07-19T12:46:00.001-04:00

Linus has discovered that the pins which hold the pneumatic closer on the storm door are easy enough for little fingers to take out. He can take both pins out and remove the closer, at which point he hands it to us to replace so that he can take it out again. I am working on teaching him to reinstall the closer. Then the game can be his and his alone. Do other children this age (18 months) do this? Or are we lucky?

Here is a video of his work.

He almost has it, all by himself, but he still wants me to fix it.

Biscuits tailored-made for Linus

2010-07-19T12:19:00.001-04:00

Why should Linus have to make do with pieces of a giant grown-up sized biscuit when Lynn can make tailored-made Linus-sized ones instead?

I remember LEGOs

2010-06-23T12:02:00.001-04:00

Someday soon Linus will know these joys of LEGOs.

(via The Oatmeal)

Can't get a better daily affirmation

2010-05-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

We can all learn a lesson from Jessica's daily affirmation, especially as it starts with, "I can be a shark!".

If we could but bottle the exuberance and optimism of youth.

(via BoingBoing)

Linus helps in the yard

2010-05-24T17:31:00.001-04:00

Linus, the naturalist.

He loves to study the things in his hand and he is inquisitive - grabbing, sticks, rocks, plants and whatever is within reach to investigate.

He helped me to put together a stand for our firewood piles.

He helped Mommy put mulch all around the plants in the yard.

I suspect that he likes anything with wheels.

Shark attack sleeping bag

2010-05-24T12:46:00.003-04:00

I remember when I was little, always wanting larger-than-me stuffed animal toys. I suppose I thought it would be cool to see a teddy bear eye to eye. This "life-sized" shark sleeping bag would be awesome for Linus (if it didn't care him) because he would be completely devoured.

$200 at Patch Together says unfortunately maybe not at that price.

(via Treehugger)

Linus learns to fly a kite

2010-05-16T20:49:00.005-04:00

Do you ever think about flying a kite except on windy days? Neither do I. Last weekend it was very windy, and that put in my mind that it would be fun to try to fly a kite, especially as Linus loves the outdoors and might like running around with the kite in the air.

It was in fact too windy to fly kites. The instructions on Lynn's kite say the kite can stand between 5 and 18 mph winds and we were in the 40 mph range last week. Three out of the four kites we brought were completely incapacitated by the string winds and especially gusts.

That being said, I was able to get my rocket kite with 12ft streamer in the air, though it has a tendency to dive to the ground from great heights if it is too windy. Once it was up I handed the reigns to Linus. He was more fascinated with the fancy kite string winder than the kite, but he held on. That's more than I can say for Lynn; when she let go on her turn I had to go chasing kite and string across the field.

Linus and the Cherry Trees

2010-04-30T12:57:00.001-04:00

The week after Easter the cherry trees at church (at Weldin and Shipley, they should be famous) were in super peak bloom. Linus thought we should take some time to explore.

He liked the feel of the petals, though there was some ripping involved.

Linus loves cherry trees!

Linus, Lefty and Lacrosse

2010-04-16T12:20:00.001-04:00

Linus loves to go and play with the neighbors' dog Lefty. Whenever Linus sees the dog he points to go over to him. Lefty is a week younger than Linus, so they almost have a birthday in common. They were playing together on Easter weekend.

Babies and puppies, you can't go wrong with that.

A discussion ensues over whose toy that really is (It's Lefty's).

Linus prepares to throw.

Linus guards the lacrosse goal.

Linus the lacrosse goalie.

Linus struggles to escape the net.

Star Trek Science Officers

2010-04-13T12:44:00.001-04:00

Of course we are wearing science blue for our Star Trek uniforms. Ensign Linus Koehler can move to whatever other specialty he wants when he graduates from Starfleet Academy.

Linus on Easter

2010-04-11T16:06:00.004-04:00

Linus was fascinated with the blooming magnolia's at the Dupont Country Club. They were out in full force at Easter brunch last week.

He had a new outfit, seersucker pants, he dresses better than I do.

More brunches, he says.

Linus' first professional hair cut

2010-04-11T15:45:00.005-04:00

For Easter we finally got Linus hair cut. We had Lauren at Sherif Zaki do the honors since she does such a nice job on me.

Mommy held Linus and daddy took pictures.

He looks great!

Handsome and ready for Easter.

Linus loves the playground and the swings

2010-04-02T10:03:00.004-04:00

Last weekend before the rains we took Linus to the Can-Do playground. He loves the playground, especially the swings.

The playground has a pretty nice set up and all kinds of stuff, from swings to slides to other things that can be turned, manipulated or just provide fodder for young imaginations.

He can be a pretty intent swinger, as revealed in the video. He is having a good time, I assure you.

Work hard and study and you can anything you want to be...

2010-03-30T16:30:00.003-04:00

The harsh reality of running a civilization.

(via Wondermark)

Linus the Sailor

2010-03-03T18:45:00.006-05:00

Linus has a sailor hat in a dress up box that Lynn put together for him and his friends on his birthday. He looks pretty smart in it and loves to out it on and take it off again. He will delightedly crawl around with it own his head as well.

Smooshing the hat.

And then putting it on and off.

I just hope he doesn't get those swollen forearms like Popeye. But we could get him a sash and scimitar like Sinbad, but that is a separate sailing tradition from the hat he has. Anchors away Linus.

Dress like Linus day - gray shirt and jeans

2010-03-03T17:51:00.003-05:00

Every so often Linus picks out a nice outfit for the both of us. He decided on a gray shirt and jeans two weeks ago and so I followed suit.

I am not sure why he was gesturing to the camera like that, he does that a lot now, it his universal gesture for "take me there" or "I want that to investigate it".

Hand crafted Elmo baby hangers

2010-03-03T12:50:00.001-05:00

There was many a time when Linus was this little that it was hard to hold something over his playpen or bouncy seat that would keep him happy for the hour that he wanted it. I don't think I ever stooped to coat hangers, but I now realize that I could have.

(via There I fixed it)

The toddler Fifth Element

2010-01-18T14:33:00.005-05:00

This Sunday we got an ottoman with four smaller ottomans (ottomen?) inside for our family room. Linus had to thoroughly investigate them. I helped him put his four colored blocks on top as we staged the toddler "The Fifth Element".

Blue is water. Green is earth. Red is first and yellow air. Or do you have a better assignment?

Changing Diapers

2010-01-12T12:06:00.001-05:00

Changing diapers. This excuse does not work at my house either.

(via the excellent PhDComics, which you should be reading.)

Linus is blessed with scientific parents

2010-01-11T12:29:00.004-05:00

Who will protect my little sociological experiment from the excesses of his scientific parents?

I suspect that Linus does as much experimenting on us as we do on him.

(via the excellent Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, go read it every day!)

Shadow Boxer Baby

2010-01-09T17:35:00.006-05:00

A sunny profile.

He feels flatter than I do.

After you, Shadow. No, after you, Linus.

Back in December Linus noticed the low, late afternoon sun streaming through the window in the dining room and boxed with his shadow a little bit. Both Linus and his shadow are so cute I think this bout is a tie.

Linus helps with childproofing

2010-01-09T17:30:00.003-05:00

My baby is so smart he helps install his own childproofing.

Here Linus is helpfully holding the door and instructing me in the correct use of a screwdriver (Left Loosy, Righty Tighty) to install a childproofing device to keep him out of the cabinet.

The importance of baby learning a second language

2009-12-09T13:36:00.003-05:00

I cannot overemphasize the importance of teaching your child not just any second language, but the correct second language.

(via Wondermark)

Won't somebody please think of the children?

2009-12-04T15:10:00.003-05:00

(via SMBC)

President Obama seems to like kids

2009-12-04T12:30:00.002-05:00

I know there is the hoary cliche that politicians must like babies and go around kissing babies to get votes, but these photos of President Obama and some of his staff's children seem to show that he genuinely likes and is comfortable with kids. He must have gotten good practice with Malia and Sasha. It may also be that he is a young president, still rearing his own children, in contrast to the past several presidents.

These children from at the U.S. Embassy in Bejing look absolutely delighted to meet the president, and every single kid seems preternaturally cute.

I like this photo of him playing peek a boo with a staff member's daughter. It makes him seem human, just like the rest of us.

Here he is with the very cute granddaughter of Nancy Pelosi. The baby steal the scene with the angel outfit. Who wouldn't want to hold that angel baby, even if he were president.

Now for us to wrangle a legitimate invitation to the White House so that Linus can meet President Obama while he is still his cute baby self (before he turns into a cute toddler).

(via the Whitehouse Flickr pool, children at embassy, peek-a-boo, baby angel)

Burglar warms bottle for baby

2009-11-20T10:18:00.007-05:00

Apparently a burglar with a heart of gold warmed a bottle for a baby in the house he was robbing. The burglars had forced their way into a house and were robbing the place , but one stopped to warm a bottle for the crying baby and gave it to another child to feed the baby.

I wonder if I could get one of the burglars to come and help babysit Linus sometime. Certainly loving children is a prerequisite for babysitting. But holding a gun to the parents head during the robbery and pistol whipping the other adult present probably indicates this isn't a good idea. He was caught after the burglar's aunt recognized him on surveillance video which showed them at the scene of the robbery. One is still at large.

(video at WISHtv.com)

Teaching Klingon to the baby.

2009-11-18T12:43:00.005-05:00

BoingBoing references a story about a linguist who attempted to teach Klingon as a first language to his son. He only spoke Klingon to the child for the first three years of his life. The father thought that his son was really starting to pick up the language. Although it appears that it didn't stick, from the article:

"As for Speers, who still gets nostalgic when he recalls singing the Klingon lullaby “May the Empire Endure” with his son at bedtime, the experiment was a dud. His son is now in high school and doesn’t speak a word of Klingon."

Speers, the linguist, puts his skills to work at a company called Multilingua, which writes translation software for more common languages, and also Klingon.

In a similar experiment I "speak-a to Linus, ina da brokena English, so dat he canna learna da' Italian of-a my ancestors", or I "talk with zee Fwench accent, ah, hah, hah ,hah". I am not sure it is working. Every day I myself fight the urge to turn my child raising into a grand sociology experiment. I suppose only an ethics board review and jail time keep me from enacting this dream.

(Klingon stroller and bassinet from this post)

Linus in argyle

2009-11-09T14:15:00.001-05:00

One of the fun things you get to do with your infant son is dress him in all the cool clothes you want. Another advantage that Linus has is his extreme cuteness. He can pull off many more outfits than I could, I am a little jealous. A few weeks ago he was dressed to the nines in his argyle sweater, white shirt and khakis. He agreed to pose for some pictures.

He is a delight to watch when you get him laughing.

Another thing I like to do is get close in front of him on the ground to get a picture, but now that he is crawling so quickly it ends with me retreating around the room as quickly as I can and him chasing me in a dead run (crawl?) as fast as he can.

I like the looking into the camera effect when he almost catches me crawling and I haven't had time or space to back up away from him. He loves chasing the camera.

Mommy helped distract him from chasing me in the last picture.

Pirate Linus

2009-10-24T15:40:00.006-04:00

By "coincidence" Linus and I had our pirate shirts on last week and that called for a photo to memorialize the event. We couldn't quite get Linus and me to be ready for the picture at the same time. Here are the outtakes, but still the best pictures we have.

Linus wasn't ready for that first picture.

Linus entertains a friend

2009-10-24T15:24:00.005-04:00

Two weeks ago Linus entertained his friend Derek.

Derek was three months old and Linus is 8 and a half months old, so entertaining consisted of Linus gently trying to figure out who and what Derek was, and Derek noticing motion.

After playtime comes naps for both.

They had a good day, and their mommies got to chat.

You and me and the baby makes...

2009-10-23T13:18:00.007-04:00

Wonderful, wonderful compromises.

(via A Softer World)

Finding an appropriate babysitter

2009-10-23T13:00:00.007-04:00

Where can I get one of those goats?

(via Wondermark)

Best (Worst) Baby Halloween costume ever

2009-10-02T12:29:00.000-04:00

I am sure that you have seen this picture since it has appeared everywhere this season.

What a cute lobster baby ready in the pot. This is the best costume, although the baby seems annoyed. Besides, Linus wants to eat lobster not be lobster:

I always thought it was a tradition to dress infants up in the cutest costumes designed to make them look like something else edible. Some favorites of mine through the years have been the pea pod costume and the jalapeno pepper costumes that are so popular. Now that I have a baby to do this with, he is a little too old for the blob costumes, at eight months he is going to want to still be able to crawl around in whatever we put him in. Probably the zebra costume that mom found on sale for him.

Didn't know winter babies had a plight

2009-09-28T12:29:00.001-04:00

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal describes new studies on the plight of the winter babies. Apparently children born in winter have a greater chance of learning difficulties, health issues and less advancement in education and economic livelihood. I had never heard of this and having my own birthday in January and a new son with a birthday in January it peaked my interest. The article states the problem as such:

"Children born in the winter months already have a few strikes against them. Study after study has shown that they test poorly, don't get as far in school, earn less, are less healthy, and don't live as long as children born at other times of year. Researchers have spent years documenting the effect and trying to understand it."

The new study (.pdf link) looks at the problem in a new way. Look at the mothers and not the babies.

It is surprising that no one thought to look at the family background and specifically the mothers of the children in the studies. It turns out that winter babies tend to be born to mothers that are unmarried, teenage and less educated. Thus, given the many studies that show that the outcome for a child is strongly correlated with parental education, socio-economic status, marital status, and parental age, it is not surprising that winter babies have a tougher time of it.

In Linus' case (and my own) his mother is married, not teenage and has a college degree, so the "plight" may not apply (never mind the danger of applying statistics to individual outcomes). I suppose that given the statistics we are discussing that makes him ever so slightly unusual compared to the rest of his January birthday cohort.

The next step in the study will be to determine why mothers of babies born in winter have these characteristics. The study suggests a decrease in fertility related to hot months for usually poor families without air conditioning and increased fertility in the cooler spring results in a disproportionate number of winter babies to women with fewer means. Commentors on the article point out that babies born in January are conceived in Spring which is spring break and prom time for teenagers. Just remember that plausible explanations are not always the correct explanations.

Linus loves his playroom

2009-09-13T15:11:00.007-04:00

We have a room on the first floor that we have been using as an "office" though the correct term would be room of junk, since a computer, some bookshelves, and the pile of bills do not make an office. We had always intended to make this room a playroom for Linus, because it was on the first floor and near everything especially the kitchen, which would make keeping an ear and occasionally eye on him easier, and we could safe the room more than others so that he could be in there without us watching him every minute for a little while.

The playroom idea was strongly suggested to us by friends with kids and tons of toys but no separate space to put them in. Thus their whole house is the playroom. I have also seen other examples of playrooms with the lucky child user unable to put his feet down without stepping on a beloved toy, but safely floored with a cushy mat for more intense play. That's a playroom that is a necessity.

After Linus' sudden increase in mobility we realized that we needed that room stat. There were hints that Linus was going to start crawling soon on vacation so when we arrived home for the home and chores part of the vacation we started the final clearing of the room. We went and found a soft carpet with extra cushion for crawling on. We blocked all the outlets and we have one safety gate and are waiting for some consignment sales to cover the other door. Now more rooms are junk rooms but Linus' seems to like his playroom.

Linus loves his playroom.

The full playroom, enhanced by Linus' presence.

The pictures above also show Linus' enhanced mobility because he crawled to those toys to play with them and he sits up more and will hold himself up with his hands to play om his stomach.

Of course, he likes it best when we are in there with him, which defeats the goal of giving him a safe place to play by himself, but we made it comfortable enough for us to lie down there on the floor and play with him.

Linus is crawling

2009-09-13T14:23:00.004-04:00

Linus' adventures on vacation must have stimulated him to achieve new milestones in babyhood because the Saturday (8-29-2009) two days after we arrived home he suddenly decided to crawl across the living room floor. This was an unusual Daddy first and not a Mommy first, and I was glad to see it. The first thing he crawled toward was my Science magazine that I was reading (sometimes to him). He's going to be so smart. We captured a fourth attempt on poorly lit video, a "run" after the remote control.

The parental panic caused by this sudden increase in mobility forced the immediate completion of Linus' playroom. That day we went and got the carpet.

Mostly Linus' crawling is not the official crawling on all fours. he gets up on all fours, revs up by rocking back and forth, and then... drops his back legs and kind of army crawls with his arms across the floor. I have thought about putting barbed wire across the living room in a grid about 2ft off of the floor to complete the simulation. I have high hopes that he will crawl on all fours the regular way soon, perhaps in the week when he abandons it all together and starts trying to stand and walk.

What color are his eyes?

2009-09-10T12:04:00.003-04:00

While Lynn and I did not do this on our first date, when we were planning to have Linus I did play around with Punnett Squares because I was hoping whoever we had would have green eyes, though any healthy baby is a blessing. The squares showed good odds, and it turns out Linus' eyes are (a complicated) green, or as I like to say, "the color of a stormy sea".

(via xkcd)

Several parenting books that might be worth looking at.

2009-09-01T10:08:00.006-04:00

One thing that we learned when we found out we were going to be parents is that advice is cheap and mostly wrong. It is like the island of Laputa in Gulliver's Travels, where they have a device, the Engine, that records permutations of every sentence possible and then claim they have the sum total of human knowledge. Problem is that they don't know which of the statements are true and which are false. So it is with parenting books.

Much of the advice seems to follow fashion, and what was right a few years ago is wrong now, thus you can find books that contradict each other. We tend to follow a common-sensical approach (Wrong, I know.) The books we liked so far are:

New Parent (a year or two now) Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing and authorial fame has recommended a few good books along our parenting style. His latest recommendation is If Your Kid Eats This Book, Everything Will Still Be Okay. I haven't gone to get it yet, so caveat emptor.

I myself like the The Baby Owner's Manual: Operating Instructions, Trouble-Shooting Tips, and Advice on First-Year Maintenance. It is a no nonsense, almost engineer;s approach to knowing all of the things you need to know if you are not familiar with taking care of babies and children, which as a youngest child who never babysat, describes me. It also has some gentle humor describing your "model", baby, and good diagrams.

Another book we liked is Free Range Kids, by the author of the Free Range Kids blog. They subscribe to the general "don't freak out" parenting philosophy that lets kids explore and learn. It is a good antidote to the wrap Linus in foam panic that sometimes threatens to overwhelm my good sense and knowledge of statistics.

I also liked, My Mother Wears Combat Boots: A Parenting Guide for the Rest of Us, which is more of a counter culture approach to raising children and is the interesting story and experience of a woman who was trying to go against the ingrained culture and establishment of child bearing and rearing to bring a little creativity and openness to the process. Ironically she seems a little close-minded to the good parts of the mainstream, which sometimes generates its own problems, bu the view point is welcome and she has good advice to offer and good experiences to learn from.

I am still reading, Future Generation: The Zine-Book for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends and Others, a collection of parenting advice and stories from the one punk zine subculture.

I like to read the counter-culture books on child rearing because the culture books and view point is pretty well covered in the media and by books that were gifts or hand me downs from friends. I am either developing a balanced view of child rearing or a split personality one.

It is like I often advise people, "After this sentence, my advice is to take no advice from me."

Linus inspects poultry at the State Fair

2009-08-21T19:18:00.006-04:00

We try to time our trip to Escanaba to coincide with the Upper Peninsula State Fair when possible. Then we get to inspect livestock and watch auctions and see 4H displays, all of the fun stuff that happens at State Fairs. I guess the Upper Peninsula of Michigan has one because the one on the lower peninsula would be so far away. The UP (as it is called) is practically another state when you think about it.

Linus enjoyed the displays. I don't know if a six month old really understands what he is seeing, but Linus seemed to like the different shapes and movements of everything. Here is Linus critically judging some poultry.

He inspected pheasants, chickens, ducks, turkeys. The poultry was more interesting to him because they move. The rabbits were just lazily lying there.

We will see if we can get him an FDA license to get paid for his inspections.

Linus visits his Great-Grandmother in Chicago

2009-08-21T18:44:00.003-04:00

On our way to Escanaba on Linus' first big vacation trip we stopped in Chicago to visit Lynn's grandmother. That makes her Linus' Great-Grandmother!

He reached right out to her to give a kiss. It was very cute.

Here is four generations (skipping one) in one picture.

Linus swings at the cabin

2009-08-21T18:38:00.003-04:00

Linus is on his first vacation trip to Lynn's family cabin in Escanaba, MI. Here he is on his first swing enjoying himself.

He also has a pretty nice baseball themed outfit on. We are working on getting him a swing set at his house at home.

Bicycling with your child can be fun and rewarding.

2009-08-16T13:26:00.000-04:00

I am not sure I bicycle safely enough for myself, let alone Linus. As always, FAILlBlog has an example that will keep me on the straight and narrow, as long as I avoid emulating it.

Somebody should at least be wearing a helmet in the picture.

(via FAILBlog)

Not the father son portrait I am aiming for.

2009-08-14T13:20:00.001-04:00

I joke that when Linus was born all of my cuteness went to him and now I am left looking like this. Here is a case where another Daddy retained all of the cuteness he could.

I am so tempted to reproduce this ridiculous picture but I hope some of you out there find some way to restrain me. Perhaps with some advice in the comments.

(via Awkward Family Photos)

Linus wants lobster

2009-08-09T13:16:00.007-04:00

We had lobster for dinner last night. Though Linus has started some solid food, I still think this lobster might be too much for him.

What is that!

Mommy, what do I do with it?

Give me some!

I suspect he thinks so too, even though he was reaching for it.

How to keep babies fresh

2009-07-29T11:20:00.004-04:00

Needless to say, we won't be doing this...we don't have twins.

(via BoingBoing, via Consumerist and Gawker, via Copyranter, via Vintage Adds, via Flickr user Wishbook, via page 135 of the May 8, 1954 Saturday Evening Post, via DuPont)

Babies in boxes

2009-07-23T12:01:00.012-04:00

BoingBoing's guest blogger tells of the fad in the 20's for hanging babies out windows in boxes to ensure that they received fresh air. The Boggins' Open Air Sleeping Compartment was just the thing. These types of stories are the reason that I don't believe almost any parenting advice because another eras fad turns out to be a really bad idea. Click on any of the pictures below for a larger picture.

The view from the streetThe view from inside. It looks like that window is closed, doesn't it.
Note the handles at the bottom of the window pane.

These were the rage enough that Woodrow Wilson's granddaughter was raised in one.

Here is a picture from 1915 of the open air crib in action.

1915. "Mrs. William Gibbs McAdoo, nee Eleanor Wilson. Baby McAdoo's open-air bed."

and a closeup for the crib in the window.

This box would have worked better at my old town house in Wilmington, there was a good three story drop out the back.

These boxes are from 1915 so it unlikely that most of any of my readers were raised in one. More of you will remember being raised in a sleek, modern, air conditioned Skinner Box.

1947. Boxes For Babies. Baby John Gray Jr. happily playing in his Skinner box, developed by Indiana Univ. psychologist Burrhus Frederic Skinner,. type of new-style crib which eliminates germs, drafts & constricting clothing because of temperature controls & slid-down glass

Note the box above is not really a Skinner box, but an air crib. The two are often incorrectly conflated.

I am concerned that none of these boxes appear to have enough packaging to avoid damaging the baby during shipment.

(via BoingBoing and commenters there, with pictures from Google Book search, Skinners box from LIFE and Google Book Search, 1915 picture via Shorpy who got it for free from but fails to credit the Library of Congress digital collection here)

Is Linus Little Lord Fauntleroy or the Blue Boy?

2009-07-18T20:51:00.008-04:00

Last week for church Lynn dressed Linus up in the cutest outfit. He was quite handsome in a velvet jumper and collared shirt. Not quite the Blue Boy or Little Lord Fauntleroy but very close.

Here is an insouciant pose that could be taken from the book.

"What the Earl saw was a graceful, childish figure in a black velvet suit, with a lace collar, and with lovelocks waving about the handsome, manly little face, whose eyes met his with a look of innocent good-fellowship." (Little Lord Fauntleroy)

For comparison Gainsborough's Blue Boy.

Or Goya's "Blue Boy", actually a rarely seen painting of Infante Don Luis Maria.

Or Linus' dark Blue boy.

Great works of art all of them.

Linus is an All-Star

2009-07-14T07:47:00.001-04:00

Linus is ready for the MLB All Star Game tonight with the appropriate pajamas. He wore these last night for the Home Run Derby. Linus hit as many homers as Brandon Inge. (Brandon hits them when they count, in a game.)

Here he is holding the pajamas to one side to make sure that I get a good picture of the All Star logo.

I don't think these pajamas are official MLB merchandise but he is still an All Star.

Cute baby photos increase lost wallet return rates

2009-07-13T10:12:00.004-04:00

Apparently having a picture of a baby in your wallet makes it more likely that it will be returned to you, according to an unscientific study performed in Edinburgh. The wallets had no money in them, but did have either a baby picture, puppy photograph, a family picture, an elderly couple or cards indicating donations to a charity. In addition to those, wallets with no photographs served as controls. Forty wallets were left in various locations and the return rates noted.

The chart shows that, at least according to these results, the baby picture resulted in the highest rate of return. Commentors on BoingBoing describe a good extension to this study in which wallets containing baby photographs of varying attractiveness and differing amounts of money could be used to better quantify the baby photo effect.

Now to get wallet size photos of cute baby Linus for my wallet protection and return system.

(via BoingBoing, via the Times online)

Babies laugh, monkeys laugh.

2009-07-12T12:39:00.001-04:00

How fun would this research project have been? Researchers elicited laughter (tickle-induced vocalizations) from infant and juvenile orangutans, gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos and babies to explore the emergence of laughter in primates. The results are reported in an article in Current Biology (available through Science Direct also). They analyzed the laughter and generated a cladastic family tree of the evolution of laughter which closely parallels the family tree generated from the genetics of these species.

Figure 3. Reconstructed Trees of Apes and Humans with the Siamang as the Outgroup Derived with Tickling-Induced Vocalizations
(A) The single maximum-parsimony phylogram as a result of exhaustive search (treelength = 113, RI = 0.750). Shorter branches indicate fewer character state changes.
(B) Bootstrap cladogram as a consensus tree of 10,000 replicates. Bootstrap values for ingroup clades are shown just above their preceding branches.

How did they come up with the idea and what implications does this have for laughter as communication and its evolution?

Uncommon names correlated with increased juvenile delinquincy

2009-07-12T12:15:00.000-04:00

A study by David Kalist (also registered at IDEAS) and Daniel Lee of Shippensburg University seems to indicate that unusual or uncommon names are correlated with increases in juvenile delinquency. ("First Names and Crime: Does Unpopularity Spell Trouble?" - full text in html, abstract).
The study takes the list of names from an undisclosed state and creates a Popular name index which is essentially the ratio of the popularity of a name to the most popular name in his list, Michael.
A cumulative distribution plot of the popular name index (PNI) for the two populations, the state population and the juvenile delinquents shows that the juvenile delinquent names are less popular than the general state population.

The plot shows a considerable difference in the medians (50th percentile). About half the names in the state population have a PNI greater than 20, while about half the names of juvenile delinquents have a PNI greater than 11. The average PNI for the state population is 26.31 but falls to 22.0 for the juvenile delinquents. The study says that this difference is significant. Therefore, compared to the state population of names, a larger proportion of juvenile delinquents have unpopular names.

The study also correlates the PNI to the fraction of the population that is a juvenile delinquent. It shows that a 10 percent decrease in the popularity-name index (less popular name) increases the number of juvenile delinquents by 3.67 percent.

Of course, the comments at Neatorama and even by supposedly educated researchers in the newspaper article spout off about examples of people they know that were against type according to the study. One should remember that the plural of anecdotes is not data, it is anecdotes. The study is over a population with a distribution, you will always be able to find examples of youths with unusual names who are not delinquents and those with common names who are, you would almost have to, given to have the results be balanced. That doesn't necessarily invalidate the study. I guess people like talking about that one friend from childhood with the certain name that was trouble, or even that one friend who was trouble no matter the name.

That being said, correlation is not causation and so the results of the study should be examined critically as with all scientific study. There is some evidence that the choice of names is correlated with other socio-economic and racial indicators which themselves are sometimes correlated with increased crime or juvenile delinquency, but the question remains, does the name make the person or do are they both caused by some other factor.

(via Neatorama, via Orlando Sentinel, via Social Science Quarterly)

Linus can lift Daddy's head

2009-07-11T18:38:00.002-04:00

Linus likes to come in (with a little help) and say good morning to us in the bedroom sometimes. Here he is trying to hold up my big old head.

And attacking me from a different angle, he knows mommy has caught him trying to put my whole head in his mouth.

Linus's increasing dexterity when trying to hold things means we are now in the firing line.

Linus turns over - sometimes

2009-07-10T10:44:00.005-04:00

Linus' new trick (learned a few weeks ago) has been to roll over from his back to his front. He then is "stuck" in this position and enjoys it or tolerates it for some time and then calls to us to turn him back over. It has become a bit of an aggravation at night since he crams himself up against the crib bars (with breathe-through net for some cushion) and then wakes himself up, changing a baby who slept through the night to one who screams all of the sudden at 2am. We have been waiting for him to master the next step of turning from front to back again so that he can right himself and be more comfortable. He is finally starting to do that again. An example is in the too dark video below. Since Linus has been doing all of his growing up and hitting his milestones while I have been at work, mommy graciously films them for me later.

Careful readers may recall that, in March he had already demonstrated the ability to roll from back to front. But since then he has apparently forgotten how to. I have a theory that the head weight and arm strength grow at different rates and that in March he was at an optimal range in which to roll over even if it was accidental. Then he grew out of these constraints, head to big maybe or arms to weak, until now where he is almost able to do it again giving the motivation. At least now he will probably have more control over it.

Linus likes the Newark Community band

2009-06-28T22:12:00.007-04:00

On Thursday Lynn and I took Linus with us to hear my old band, the Newark Community Band (caution rude window resizing flash site, but its all they got) play at Bellevue State Park north of Wilmington. Before you go thinking rock and roll, stop your jump to conclusions and think concert band. I used to play the tuba. I missed hearing all of the old concert band standards and so we went to see them. They did not disappoint. You can see that Linus had a great time.

Mood one plus tongue.

Mood two looking up, plus tongue.

Mood three, intense concentration on the music, with tongue.

He is so preppy hipster with his khaki shorts, blue shirt and bucket hat.

Linus likes the Pirates

2009-06-26T10:39:00.006-04:00

I went to school in Pittsburgh so I have a residual attachment to the Pittsburgh sports teams. Linus' godmother was in Pittsburgh to see her team play the Pirates, and acquired some fan attire for Linus. Linus likes the Pirates (the baseball team, but also the other kind, and he is also a Phillies fan).

Every parent hopes that their child will grow up to like the same sports teams as they do, but I realize that when Linus grows up he will have to make his own decisions.

Linus is preppy

2009-06-21T22:45:00.005-04:00

For Father's Day Linus was wearing a new onesie with polo shirt top. Because he is so preppy he turned up his collar to be cool like the other kids.

I remember when having the collar turned up on a polo shirt was cool and preppy, then it wasn't, now I think it is cool again. Or one could follow the other interpretation where various factions have their collars tuned up or down based on complicated rules of fashion and cliques.

Are upturned collars cool again?

Linus loves Math

2009-06-21T22:41:00.004-04:00

I snapped this photo of a surprised Linus wearing his new "I heart Math" onesie. Of course the heart is a three dimensional plot of a heart using a complicated formula. Perhaps is expression is from trying to figure out the formula.

(Onesie available from Neatorama)

Someday there will be road trips

2009-06-11T12:45:00.004-04:00

I can only hope that this is the argument in the car someday when Linus is older and we take him on a road trip.

All parenting should be this philosophical.

(via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)

Linus the Strongman

2009-06-03T22:28:00.010-04:00

One more thing I thought of when Linus wears his striped outfit is the old fashioned strongmen from the circus. Though they often wear leopard prints and other colors as well.

Contrast with Linus the Strongman with dumbbell.

Here Linus is doing some lifts with his dumbbell rattle.

Though not as deadly as the other rattle, this one is still a little to heavy for him so he usually puts it down after a lift or two.

Some strongman he is. We are not likely to increase his regiment until he is ready. There are other strongman babies as well.

Linus loves Engineering

2009-06-03T20:07:00.003-04:00

You can't quite see the I next to the heart enclosing gear, but Linus is sporting his new I Love Engineering onesie, fancy hat and an engineering attitude at a friend's first birthday party.

As usual that outfit didn't last long. Here he and mommie are changed into evening wear for the second half of the cook-out.

The Death Rattle

2009-05-23T12:46:00.006-04:00

Linus' grandparents gave Linus a very nice silver rattle for a christening gift. Unfortunately this is what was written inside:

Baby Safety

The Silversmiths at Empire handcrafted this product to be treasured as a lifetime heirloom. These beautiful keepsakes were never intended to be played with and should never be left with a baby without parental supervision.

Hence we call it the death rattle.

Linus seems to like it nonetheless.

Smiling

Laughing

Sneaky but cute.

Of course he loves putting it in his mouth. It's sterling silver, do I have anything to worry about? Is it bad for him? Or is the warning just legalese to get the manufacturer out of any responsibility for the product?

Nature Boy

2009-05-21T12:09:00.001-04:00

There was a boy
A very strange enchanted boy
They say he wandered very far, very far
Over land and sea
A little shy
And sad of eye
But very wise
Was he

And then one day
A magic day he passed my way
And while we spoke of many things, fools and kings
This he said to me
"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return"

(Nature Boy)

Pirate Linus

2009-05-18T12:08:00.001-04:00

Finally Linus is growing into some of the cool 3- 6 month clothes. Here is Pirate Linus surrounded by all of his pirate booty.

Argh!

Yo ho, me hearties, yo ho.

Linus in stripes

2009-05-17T14:37:00.008-04:00

I can't decide if these pictures of Linus in a new striped onesie is evocative of:

Prisoner wear (like the escape in O Brother, Where Art Thou).

19th century bathing attire for the discerning gentlemen

or a gondolier of Venice. Though he needs a natty hat plus ribbon for his outfit for this one.

Which do you think? Polls open in the comments below.

Knife throwing and toddlers do not mix!

2009-05-14T10:35:00.003-04:00

Every baby, when they learn to crawl or walk, goes immediately for the knife drawer, at least that is the way it is in my family. Perhaps we do not need to encourage that.

At least it looks like this is good quality family time.

(via TYWKIDBI)

(many if these messages act as helpful exemplars of what not to do as a parent, when the occasion presents itself)

Linus entertains at Easter

2009-05-08T17:00:00.007-04:00

I should have posted some of these pictures a few weeks ago. Linus had a busy few weeks hosting several family events. Linus got us included in his grandmother and grandfather's invitation to the club on Easter, he gets us in all kinds of places.

Four (or maybe three - skipping the one represented by my mother to the right out of the picture, should have got that one too) generations appear in this picture of Linus, and Daddy and Linus' Great Great Aunt Connie. Aunt Connie is my maternal grandmother's sister, Linus' great-grandmother's sister. That is quite a stretch of generations.

Linus entertained Aunt Connie, or was it the other way around.

They both look like they are having fun.

Appropriate White House Diaper changing locations

2009-05-05T12:03:00.001-04:00

I need to remember this when I visit the White House. Only use the appropriate diaper changing areas.

From the Reuters caption:

A military usher suggests to a guest a better location than the crosshall of the White House to change a baby's diaper before an event in the East Room in Washington May 1, 2009.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES POLITICS SOCIETY)

When the baby needs his diaper changed, you change it!

Our kids will be better at computers than us.

2009-05-01T13:14:00.003-04:00

It's obvious that our children, who have and are growing up with computers and ubiquitous computing devices will be better at using these tools than we are. It will come naturally to them. I just hope they are nice about it.

(comic)

I hope this doesn't represent a future Linus impolitely helping me with a spreadsheet. Using the right click or center wheel or menus vs. short cuts is a particular pet peeve of mine. Everybody does it differently, but if you don't do it my way you are wrong.

(via Joy of Tech)

Everyone wants their son to grow up to be a doctor

2009-04-23T20:22:00.004-04:00

We thought that with a little encouragement that Linus could choose to be a doctor someday if he wanted to (like his uncle and grandfather). Thus we got him a doctor outfit. A Dr. Poopsie outfit.

Behold Dr. Poopsie.

What's he dreaming about that makes him smile so much.

Here is some Dr. Poopsie excitement.

So cute when he is sleeping

2009-04-20T21:33:00.004-04:00

Linus is so cute when he is sleeping.

We have setup a playard which has an insertable bassinet in the living room so that he can sleep on his back instead of in a bouncy seat if he needs a nap during the day. We are trying to keep have the crib in his room upstairs be the calm and effective sleeping area for nighttime. Thus far it has worked. He sleeps five to six hours straight in the first stretch at night and we did nothing to cause this but perhaps having a nighttime quieter time be different from a daytime active time. Hopefully this continues.

How to make a baby

2009-04-17T11:11:00.002-04:00

I suppose I have this one figured out now, but here are the details in an entertaining movie:

So that's how it happens.

(via the Upcoming Queue at Neatorama)

Kicking space baby

2009-04-15T07:58:00.006-04:00

Linus is starting to be amused by watching things moving above him and he seems to almost want to reach out to things. I thought it would be good to get him a playset with the mat and toys hanging down that he could bat at while he figures out his hands.

I fell in love with the (unfortunately) most expensive one of these without electronics because of its space theme. It has hanging rocketships, planets and flying saucers which crinkle or have mirrors or vibrate. While Linus doesn't bat at the things he, purposefully or not, kicks at the support and then delights in the movement of the objects above him. Careful placement of the baby on the mat increase the chance that his kicks find the target and generate the appropriate response.

In the video you can see that he becomes a little annoyed when the stuff stops moving, which agitates him so he kicks and then he connects with the upright and everything jiggles again and he is happy. The feedback loop of his agitation causes the very kicking which jiggles the toys which soothes him which stops the kicking and movement which agitates him and round and round.

My intention was for him to use his hands not his feet, but if he likes it than I like it. It sometimes provides minutes of entertainment, which for a baby is forever, but for a parent is still just minutes. It is great fun to watch and encourage.

I have thought about tying a string to his foot to move whatever other toys he likes so that I don't have to, a particular non mechanical mobile above his playard is what I have in mind. I am sure that is a bad idea and the baby would get tangled in the string, horror would befall him, etc. etc. But I seem to recall people doing this in the old days. What do the more experienced parents think about the idea?

Aliens baby carrier

2009-04-13T15:56:00.004-04:00

I was just kidding about watching the movie series Aliens when Linus' mom was pregnant. This product takes it to the extreme. By the people that brought you the Snuggie, it's the Peekaru.

This baby has just ripped an exit hole in his own mother and her fleece pullover and he is coming out. I bet he has acid blood too! Game over man, game over.

(I am laughing, but I bet we get one.)

(via gawker, via Daily Mail UK, or alternatively via Daily Intel, via Mom4Life, and Strollerderby, via togetherbe maker of the Peekaru)

Linus in Space

2009-04-12T11:29:00.003-04:00

Linus "plays" with his new space playset. He hasn't quite got the hang of trying to move things with his hands yet, but he seems to like his tummy time pillow.

Mysterious mother and child

2009-04-12T11:24:00.002-04:00

Who knows what Linus and his mother are dreaming up behind those mysterious eyes.

Tub-o-babies, for your convenience

2009-04-08T11:40:00.002-04:00

I did not know that Tub-o-babies was available yet, I thought it was still in marketing trials.

From Reuters:

Seven babies sit in tummy tubs filled with water to cool down after a baby massage class held for young mothers in IJmuiden March 24, 2009. The "cooling down" segment is to simulate a womb-like environment for the infants to experience the warmth and comfort.

I did not know there was such a thing as baby massage, let alone a cooling off time in a tub. Given my two month experience with children, I expect that there is some peeing on in there. Closer examination of the pictures shows one ready to cry, two annoyed and four quizzical.

Phillies play on opening day and Linus is dressed for it.

2009-04-05T21:59:00.006-04:00

Dad and Linus are ready to watch the Phillies play baseball on opening day. I explained that the Phillies are the World Champions, but Linus asked if he will ever get to see them win a World Series in his lifetime. There was an awkward silence after that.

Clever husbands keep their mouths shut

2009-03-31T16:20:00.002-04:00

Linus was born two months ago! Sometimes it seems like a long time, but most of the time it feels like yesterday. As to the labor...

(keeping my mouth shut)

(via Saturday Morning breakfast Club)

Rolling over

2009-03-29T17:02:00.004-04:00

I don't know which rolling over is the milestone for babies. Is it front to back or back to front?

Linus rolls over from front to back accidentally sometimes. I don't think that he has figured it out and it is something of a surprise to him, hence the outburst at the end. Mommy was there already but did immediately rush to comfort him.

No babies were harmed in the making of this film, although it is possible this may come up in a therapy session much later in life.

One of the risks of parenthood

2009-03-27T12:34:00.002-04:00

One of the risks of parenthood is having your baby turn you in for your seditious activities to whatever secret police is running things at the time.

This picture shows that no one is too cute (even Linus) to inform on their relatives.

This poster was inspired by BoingBoing as an antidote to the somewhat (extremely) paranoid turn-your-friends-and-perfect-strangers-in campaign that the London police have been running to "combat" terrorism.

(via this flickr photo answering the BoingBoing remix challenge and favorite results)

Polka Dot baby

2009-03-25T12:19:00.001-04:00

Linus and his new polka dot blanket from another aunt and uncle and cousin.

Are you takin' a picture of me?

2009-03-24T12:17:00.000-04:00

Linus with Al Pacino voice: Are you takin' a picture of me? Are you takin' a picture of me?

What is this tough guy look on his face? I was just taking a picture. When I finished I just backed away slowly, apologizing profusely.

Calendar baby

2009-03-23T07:25:00.000-04:00

So very far away. Linus is out of focus. Is it an interesting visual effect or is this just a bad shot because my crappy little camera accidentally I focused on the foreground.

Will a professional or more experienced amateur please offer an opinion?