friday photos

A few days late...

Genghis sometimes smiles more at his stuffed giraffes than at us. This photo is from a few weeks ago, when we tested out giraffe's ear as a replacement pacifier.



Dreaming of conquests for the French Empire.

"another one of your little lists"*

On the Sunday night before my last week of work I wrote a 30+ item list of things I wanted to get done before we had our baby. Thankfully, I left work 2 hours early on my last day and ran a few of the most important errands. Because the next day Abe & I decided to give ourselves a vacation from household work, and the day after, Genghis entered the world.

For the last 7 weeks, I've been slowly tackling the list. I think I have about 7 items checked off. On Monday Genghis took one of his hero naps (any daytime sleeping that lasts longer than 45 minutes) so I crossed 2 items off.

First, I hung this pachyderm tryptic in the nursery (painted several weeks ago and waiting patiently for me to get out a hammer and nails). When I put Genghis down in his crib, he was staring at that spot on the wall with an intensely curious look on his face. Coincidence?



Second, I figured out how to add a "subscribe by email" widget to my blog. It's done through Feedburner and is fairly straightforward following these directions. So if you don't use an RSS reader but do like email, then try it out.

*The title for this post is an oft-quoted line in Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody detective series. Peabody is a turn-of-the-century Egyptologist who solves crimes in part by constantly making organized lists of things "to do" such as cross-examine the local antiquities dealer or comb the murder scene for missing clues.

friday photos

Last weekend, we had Genghis's baby blessing (in my church, new infants are blessed and prayed over - somewhat similar to a christening). Abe's entire immediate family came, as well as both of his grandmothers. My parents also came out. It meant a lot to us to have people hail from California, Washington, Utah, Wisconsin and London to support us.


Abe's family.


My family (well, 5 out of 17 of us).


Doting grandmas.


Abe gives Genghis baby kisses.


Nuclear family.


Showing off Genghis's blessing kimono, made by my mom. Blanket made by my grandma.


Genghis & Grandpa.


Abe teaches Genghis how to play Dominion.

cleaniness is next to godliness; or, why i wash my sheets each Christmas

I am the last of 5 children, so I had a fairly relaxed upbringing. Especially since #4 was a smelly, rambunctious boy who did a good job of wearing Mom out. By the time I was about 11 years old I was responsible for taking care of my own things: making my bed, vacuuming my room, doing my laundry. The only time I remember being directed about laundry was on Christmas Eve when my mom asked us to wash our sheets*. Imagine my surprise when, about 12 years later I noticed my friend's chore chart for her home, which included washing bed sheets every other week.

That's when I realized once a year was probably not an adequate target.

I'm now much more sensitive to the status of our sheets. If they feel just a bit matted and clammy then they are ripe for cleaning. If I can feel a little grit around my feet I know we've gone way too long.

It has made me wonder if there are other common household cleaning items that I am woefully ignorant about. What do most people consider the necessary chores for a house to feel livably clean? How often do people vacuum the main floor...under the the couch...in the closet? To explore this issue further, I've created a little survey below (if the survey looks funky through whatever format you're reading this - for example, on my blog the margins are way off, just follow this link instead).

In a follow-up post, I will run analyses and post results.






*I may mistakenly remember this as happening every year, but it may have only been once but stood out so much that I have expanded the memory.

friday photos

Abe and Genghis having a man-to-man conversation.

We took a road trip to Washington D.C. last weekend. Abe showed Genghis around Old Town Alexandria.

The wrap is our solution to eating dinner together. Last night I was wearing Genghis and accidentally dropped spaghetti noodles on his head.

Genghis meets 2 of his cousins last weekend. Unfortunately, he was having a rough day so there wasn't a whole lot of cousin interaction. Except the time one cousin rolled the car seat onto his head. And the time she dropped the plastic T-Rex on his head. Really, though, the point of family is to toughen kids up.

wats ^? sunny n warm hre. lol :)

Photo from this website

I have sat down several times in the past week to write something insightful and witty on my blog, but the well seems to be dry.

That's not quite true. The well is just full of baby, and I'm trying draw from other sources. It turns out everything I do is dominated by this baby. Just yesterday I walked into a cracker display at the grocery store because I was looking down admiring Genghis rather than watching my steps. That's actually the reason they always say that rear facing car seats are safer - it reduces parents distracted by cooing.

The frustrating thing is that a few weeks ago I thought of something really great to blog about. I forgot and then remembered earlier this week. But now I've forgotten again. So instead of pursuing fresh material I am consumed by trying to remember my awesome idea. Eventually I'll remember and realize that it wasn't really a great idea to begin with. It will feel the same as when you wake up from a dream in which you've had a brilliant idea and as you start to write it down you realize that recycling all of the dirty diapers in the world to use as home insulation probably won't sell after all.

I once had a dream that we could harness the power of new web 2.0 social networking technology to have people across the world report the temperature and precipitation. By uploading all of this data and analyzing it over time we could create a system for tracking and predicting outside conditions. And then I realized that we already have that system - they are called weathermen.

friday photos*

We recently discovered the joy of the Moby Wrap (I find this brand particularly funny given Genghis's name). Genghis spent a whole day not sleeping and that night we purchased this wrap. Now when he is overtired or overstimulated (my recent theory on his behavior points to these as the main causes of crankiness) I can envelop him in the voluminous folds of the Moby, snuggle him up to my chest, and watch him drift off to sleep while I do the dishes.





*okay, i know these friday photos highlight me more than genghis, but he does really like the moby wrap.