About a week ago, PrettyGirl slept through the entire night, and I wondered on this very blog if such an event would occur again in the near future.
It did. Every single night since then, except last Friday night. She goes down around 8, and ten hours later, she wakes up and lets her presence be known. It's almost exactly ten hours, in fact. In bed at 8:15? See ya at 6:15 tomorrow morning! She went down a little early around 7:45 last night and got Mommie out of bed at 5:45 this morning.
M has started bringing PG into bed with us after her (PG's) morning feeding so I can spend quality time with my daughter before I go off to work all day. This is a fine idea, except that I have yet to adjust to waking up earlier than I already have to. So I spend a bit of that quality time dozing off while PG watches our ceiling fan with rapt fascination. I'm working on it, though.
M, her sister, and PG went to DC yesterday, and PG became a main attraction at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. M's sister wanted to look at the Hope Diamond, and the area around there was a bit cramped, so M and PG waited in a more wide-open area. While waiting, three different groups of Asian tourists came over and oohed and aahed over PG. By the time M's sister had emerged from the Hope Diamond area, there were no fewer than 20 people crowded around M and PG. Nobody got a picture, so I didn't get to see what that looked like.
If you were reading this this afternoon, I gave you faulty information. PG did not sleep through Live Free or Die Hard, but she did remain quiet during the time they were in there. The explosions were keeping her awake (that part I got right,) and M and her sister decided to leave the movie about 20 minutes in.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
The Reviews Are In!
Yesterday morning, M called me at work so I could talk her through getting our wireless network set back up so her sister could use it to get some internet access on her laptop. That went well, we determined that, in all the wire rearranging, our computer still had internet access too when M successfully pulled up this very blog, and we concluded our phone conversation.
A few minutes later, M called again. I thought maybe there was an unexpected development in the network situation, but she was clearly laughing too hard for that to be the case. Truth be told, I wasn't really sure why she was calling me back. I could make out words like "making faces" and "silly" and whatnot, but that was about it. I thought maybe PrettyGirl was being a funny baby.
It finally occurred to me that she had gone to see what I had posted on PG's most recent web album and had read the captions.
Your results may vary, of course. But I thought I'd share.
A few minutes later, M called again. I thought maybe there was an unexpected development in the network situation, but she was clearly laughing too hard for that to be the case. Truth be told, I wasn't really sure why she was calling me back. I could make out words like "making faces" and "silly" and whatnot, but that was about it. I thought maybe PrettyGirl was being a funny baby.
It finally occurred to me that she had gone to see what I had posted on PG's most recent web album and had read the captions.
Your results may vary, of course. But I thought I'd share.
Baptism by... well, Water
PrettyGirl was baptized this past Sunday. As it turned out, it was also St. John The Baptist Day, so the mass had a whole baptism theme to it. The priest took the opportunity to talk about his name is John too, and there used to be so many other Johns around, but now hardly anyone names their kids John anymore. Truly inspirational.
PG was a very good girl throughout the mass and the baptism. She stayed quiet, except for a few seconds during Mass, when she seemed about to cry but relaxed when I rocked her car carrier a bit. She did get a bit hungry and fussy during the actual Christening ceremony, but M had brought a bottle along with us up front, so PG spent most of the ceremony happily sucking down lunch.
Since PG has never, ever, shown any objections to taking a bath, we figured that she would be just fine with having water poured on her head, but I guess we neglected to take into account that she's usually naked when put in a bath and therefore might be surprised if she were to suddenly get wet while fully clothed. It wasn't a big deal, but she did yell at the deacon a little. Poor baby.
The role of the deacon was played by Dave Foley (I'm linking to his IMDB page because not one person I've mentioned this to has had any idea who Dave Foley is,) though M's sister thought he was more David Spade-like, which I suppose would work too. There was an odd moment when he was doing his thing down near the pews, and he picked up one of the little boys that had been running around disrupting things a bit and carried him around while he continued his reading. The poor kid kept looking back at his mom, standing up there with us with the boy's newly-baptized sister, and saying "Mom?" in a pitiful voice. The deacon tried to get the boy involved and have him do some of the reading, but the kid just shook his head while maintaining a look of slight terror.
Since I had to be up there with M, PG, my brother (the godfather) and M's sister (the godmother,) the task of taking pictures fell upon my niece, Leah. She did a pretty good job, though when PG was getting oil rubbed on her collarbone, I looked over and saw that Leah was busy taking pictures of herself instead.
After the ceremony, we all went back to our house and had an afterparty. M's sister spent the previous night cooking jambalaya, and it came out very good. We also had some of the best crab dip ever manufactured by human hands.
A fine time was had by all, including, somewhat surprisingly, PG, and pictures will be coming soon, either bundled with pictures of future adventures or in an album all by themselves.
PG was a very good girl throughout the mass and the baptism. She stayed quiet, except for a few seconds during Mass, when she seemed about to cry but relaxed when I rocked her car carrier a bit. She did get a bit hungry and fussy during the actual Christening ceremony, but M had brought a bottle along with us up front, so PG spent most of the ceremony happily sucking down lunch.
Since PG has never, ever, shown any objections to taking a bath, we figured that she would be just fine with having water poured on her head, but I guess we neglected to take into account that she's usually naked when put in a bath and therefore might be surprised if she were to suddenly get wet while fully clothed. It wasn't a big deal, but she did yell at the deacon a little. Poor baby.
The role of the deacon was played by Dave Foley (I'm linking to his IMDB page because not one person I've mentioned this to has had any idea who Dave Foley is,) though M's sister thought he was more David Spade-like, which I suppose would work too. There was an odd moment when he was doing his thing down near the pews, and he picked up one of the little boys that had been running around disrupting things a bit and carried him around while he continued his reading. The poor kid kept looking back at his mom, standing up there with us with the boy's newly-baptized sister, and saying "Mom?" in a pitiful voice. The deacon tried to get the boy involved and have him do some of the reading, but the kid just shook his head while maintaining a look of slight terror.
Since I had to be up there with M, PG, my brother (the godfather) and M's sister (the godmother,) the task of taking pictures fell upon my niece, Leah. She did a pretty good job, though when PG was getting oil rubbed on her collarbone, I looked over and saw that Leah was busy taking pictures of herself instead.
After the ceremony, we all went back to our house and had an afterparty. M's sister spent the previous night cooking jambalaya, and it came out very good. We also had some of the best crab dip ever manufactured by human hands.
A fine time was had by all, including, somewhat surprisingly, PG, and pictures will be coming soon, either bundled with pictures of future adventures or in an album all by themselves.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Another Album and A Sleeping Milestone!
There's a new album up, the largest yet! We took a lot of pictures on Father's Day.
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PG slept through the entire night last night! She went to bed around 8:15 and didn't wake up (noisily, anyway) until about 6:00 or 6:30 this morning! Not bad!
The question remains if she'll be doing that again anytime soon. We can only hope.
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| Pretty Girl 3 |
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PG slept through the entire night last night! She went to bed around 8:15 and didn't wake up (noisily, anyway) until about 6:00 or 6:30 this morning! Not bad!
The question remains if she'll be doing that again anytime soon. We can only hope.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Is The "Good Movie" Standard Really That Different After Ten Years?
Before we get into the topic at hand, I thought I'd let you all know that I decided to go ahead and post the uncut video of PrettyGirl in her bouncy seat. It starts out a little slow, but once the Weasel starts Poppin', there's more baby boogyin' to be seen.
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So the American Film Institute put out a new Top 100 movies list last night, which probably means we'll be getting a new list of Top 100 Comedies, Thrillers, etc. over the next few years. Either there was something wrong with the first list or there's something wrong with this one, because a lot of movies' ranks changed a lot. Vertigo, previously the 61st best movie in history, is now #9. The Searchers, once considered barely Top 100 material at #96 is now #12. The General, not even Top 100 material at all in 1997, is brand-new to the list at #18. That last one isn't a new movie, mind you - it's a Buster Keaton silent movie made in 1927.
What's going on here? As Maryann Johanson, over at FlickFilosopher, says, "Has the stature of John Ford [director of The Searchers] changed that much in a decade? Was there some revival of John Ford hysteria that I slept through?"
The same could be asked about Buster Keaton. Or, for that matter, about The African Queen, which plummeted from #17 to #65.
M and I turned to each other in disbelief when E.T. came in one notch above To Kill A Mockingbird. In retrospect, I guess E.T. is a fine movie, but they had just shown the Mockingbird scene when everybody stands up as Atticus Finch leaves the courtroom, and then followed that up with E.T. (and the 2002 version with the CGI E.T., to boot), and I guess we got caught up in the moment. The fact that To Kill A Mockingbird went up in rankings more than E.T. (E.T. used to be nine spots higher than Mockingbird,) shows that this list gets it a little more right. That, and the fact that Star Wars went up two spots to #13.
One disappointment, in a way, is that I can no longer say I've seen all ten of the Top Ten. Raging Bull got bumped up (a lot) to #4, and I've never seen it. And M and I don't particularly want to see it, based on what we've heard about it. We can do without movies about people with violent tempers that go off on everybody all the time.
You can see the list here. You can also go to the actual AFI site, but you have to log in to see the list. But if you do, you can download a PDF that allows you to check off which movies on the list you've seen and print it out for your own Netflix reference.
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| Ella Movies |
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So the American Film Institute put out a new Top 100 movies list last night, which probably means we'll be getting a new list of Top 100 Comedies, Thrillers, etc. over the next few years. Either there was something wrong with the first list or there's something wrong with this one, because a lot of movies' ranks changed a lot. Vertigo, previously the 61st best movie in history, is now #9. The Searchers, once considered barely Top 100 material at #96 is now #12. The General, not even Top 100 material at all in 1997, is brand-new to the list at #18. That last one isn't a new movie, mind you - it's a Buster Keaton silent movie made in 1927.
What's going on here? As Maryann Johanson, over at FlickFilosopher, says, "Has the stature of John Ford [director of The Searchers] changed that much in a decade? Was there some revival of John Ford hysteria that I slept through?"
The same could be asked about Buster Keaton. Or, for that matter, about The African Queen, which plummeted from #17 to #65.
M and I turned to each other in disbelief when E.T. came in one notch above To Kill A Mockingbird. In retrospect, I guess E.T. is a fine movie, but they had just shown the Mockingbird scene when everybody stands up as Atticus Finch leaves the courtroom, and then followed that up with E.T. (and the 2002 version with the CGI E.T., to boot), and I guess we got caught up in the moment. The fact that To Kill A Mockingbird went up in rankings more than E.T. (E.T. used to be nine spots higher than Mockingbird,) shows that this list gets it a little more right. That, and the fact that Star Wars went up two spots to #13.
One disappointment, in a way, is that I can no longer say I've seen all ten of the Top Ten. Raging Bull got bumped up (a lot) to #4, and I've never seen it. And M and I don't particularly want to see it, based on what we've heard about it. We can do without movies about people with violent tempers that go off on everybody all the time.
You can see the list here. You can also go to the actual AFI site, but you have to log in to see the list. But if you do, you can download a PDF that allows you to check off which movies on the list you've seen and print it out for your own Netflix reference.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Happy Sleepy Baby
Y'know, I meant to mention in my last post who Edward Jenner is. He's the guy that developed the smallpox vaccine, which was, as near as I could tell from my 5 minutes of research, the first vaccine. And now you know the rest of the story.
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I promised, in the Comments section of a previous post, that I would report back on what I thought of the Safari for Windows beta. Truth be told, I haven't used it a whole lot yet, but I did see an article about how it allows for richer colors in photographs. Of course, this will probably also be the case with Firefox in a month or two, so this particular perk may keep Safari in the lead for only so long.
I've also gotten the feeling that Safari loads pages more slowly, but I haven't tried those same pages in Firefox or IE to see if it's the browser or the pages that are slow.
********************
So... the whole getting PG into a nighttime routine thing. Until a few nights ago, it was going pretty crummy. We only really had problems Friday and Saturday nights (and part of Sunday), but it seems like it was longer.
While we didn't leave her crying for an hour and a half, like we did Thursday night, we still gave her some time to fall asleep on her own, and she just wasn't going for it. Crib or bassinet, white noise or quiet, light or dark - it was all sob-worthy for baby. Both nights she ended up being held until she fell asleep.
Sunday night we even took her out for a walk, and it still wasn't making any difference. And then M decided to try swaddling her. The thought had occurred to me earlier that day or the day before, but I dismissed it, figuring that PG had reached an age where having her limbs immobilized by the tightly wrapped blanket would be objectionable to her.
Oh, how wrong I was.
Within minutes of being swaddled, PG was on a one-way, non-stop trip to Sleepyland. M was on the verge of tears, she was so happy. We figure that the problem PG was having was that her arms and legs, in their random flailing, were keeping her awake. Once they were strapped down, so to speak, she was free to drift off.
M has swaddled her every night since then, and PG has gone right to sleep. She did fuss a little bit on Monday, but that was because we got greedy and tried to put her down a little too early. By the time 8:00 rolled around, though, she was good to go.
So we have that going for us now.
In other news, PG has a favorite chair now. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the first thing she was ever gotten excited about. It's a bouncy chair, which is surprising because she always seems to hate being put into the bouncy chair in the basement. But the one up in the dining room... yee haw! Maybe it's the music it plays and the lights it flashes. Whenever she gets into it now, her face lights up and she yells and kicks. Happily. Not wanting her to get bored with it, we only put her in it during dinnertime. We get to have an uninterrupted dinner, and she gets to sit in her chair and listen to the music and smile off into the distance like the most amazingly awesome thing to ever happen to her is happening right then and there. Everybody wins!
I have a few videos of her in the bouncy seat. Once I get one edited down to a manageable size (or take another video that doesn't last so long,) I'll post it.
********************
I promised, in the Comments section of a previous post, that I would report back on what I thought of the Safari for Windows beta. Truth be told, I haven't used it a whole lot yet, but I did see an article about how it allows for richer colors in photographs. Of course, this will probably also be the case with Firefox in a month or two, so this particular perk may keep Safari in the lead for only so long.
I've also gotten the feeling that Safari loads pages more slowly, but I haven't tried those same pages in Firefox or IE to see if it's the browser or the pages that are slow.
********************
So... the whole getting PG into a nighttime routine thing. Until a few nights ago, it was going pretty crummy. We only really had problems Friday and Saturday nights (and part of Sunday), but it seems like it was longer.
While we didn't leave her crying for an hour and a half, like we did Thursday night, we still gave her some time to fall asleep on her own, and she just wasn't going for it. Crib or bassinet, white noise or quiet, light or dark - it was all sob-worthy for baby. Both nights she ended up being held until she fell asleep.
Sunday night we even took her out for a walk, and it still wasn't making any difference. And then M decided to try swaddling her. The thought had occurred to me earlier that day or the day before, but I dismissed it, figuring that PG had reached an age where having her limbs immobilized by the tightly wrapped blanket would be objectionable to her.
Oh, how wrong I was.
Within minutes of being swaddled, PG was on a one-way, non-stop trip to Sleepyland. M was on the verge of tears, she was so happy. We figure that the problem PG was having was that her arms and legs, in their random flailing, were keeping her awake. Once they were strapped down, so to speak, she was free to drift off.
M has swaddled her every night since then, and PG has gone right to sleep. She did fuss a little bit on Monday, but that was because we got greedy and tried to put her down a little too early. By the time 8:00 rolled around, though, she was good to go.
So we have that going for us now.
In other news, PG has a favorite chair now. It is, to the best of my knowledge, the first thing she was ever gotten excited about. It's a bouncy chair, which is surprising because she always seems to hate being put into the bouncy chair in the basement. But the one up in the dining room... yee haw! Maybe it's the music it plays and the lights it flashes. Whenever she gets into it now, her face lights up and she yells and kicks. Happily. Not wanting her to get bored with it, we only put her in it during dinnertime. We get to have an uninterrupted dinner, and she gets to sit in her chair and listen to the music and smile off into the distance like the most amazingly awesome thing to ever happen to her is happening right then and there. Everybody wins!
I have a few videos of her in the bouncy seat. Once I get one edited down to a manageable size (or take another video that doesn't last so long,) I'll post it.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Shot In The Leg, and Edward Jenner's To Blame... You Give Rotavirus A Bad Name
PrettyGirl had her 2-month doctor appointment on her actual 2-month birthday Wednesday. Aside from not being able to push herself up as well as a 2-month-old ought to (attributable to our not putting her on her tummy often enough to practice,) she checked out A-OK!
She also got her first series of shots. They were the first salvo against Hepetitis B, Rubella, Diptheria, Rotavirus, and possibly something else that is slipping my mind, since one of the shots had multiple vaccinations contained within.
PG response to the shots was not what I was expecting. I was expecting instant objections to a needle going into her, but instead, she just gave a look that said, "well... that's odd." It wasn't until the needle was pulled out that she got all upset about it. The other two needles (the rotavirus vac was oral) were progressively objectionable, as she started to pick up on what was going on. She was pretty mad at us after the last one.
The shots were supposed to make her sleepy, and for a few hours she was indeed the very picture of angelic slumber. But when she finally woke up... boy howdy was she in a bad mood! Poor baby was screamin' like a banshee with a stubbed toe.
Happily, she calmed down in time for her cousin Todd's birthday party. She spent most of the time there looking around at all the unusual faces and not really thinking about the little holes in her leg.
The doctor also recommended that we start getting PG into a nighttime routine. Up until now, we've been just letting her fall asleep in our arms and then putting her into bed. We're told that it would be better to put her in bed while she's still awake and let her fall asleep on her own. And to do it at the same time each night following more or less the same routine (the wildcard being whether or not she gets a bath on a given night.) That way, she won't depend on anyone but herself to get her to sleep.
So we tried that last night, and it was pretty much a disaster. She cried more or less continually in her crib from 7:45 to 9:15 before we gave up the ghost and put her to sleep in the usual way. We think she's still hurting from the shots, so I guess we'll cut her a break for another night or two and then work our way back up.
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I was shopping for a birthday present for Todd, and of course, I went straight for the Transformers section at Toys R Us. A lot has changed since my day in the Transformers department. For one thing, they look more like the movie version, by and large. But the thing that got me was that they had diversified from just toy robots that can turn into cars or planes or insects or whatever. Now, there are voice-changing helmets, Optimus Prime vs. Megatron boxing games, and a "Cyber-Stoming" Optimus Prime that doesn't transform. I ask you, what is the point of having a Transformer that doesn't transform?
I ended up getting an Autobot that transforms into a Pontiac Somethingorother. It was a hit with both Todd and Jason, though it's tricky enough that they have to get my brother to do the transforming for them. Even I had some problems at first. And this was one of the easier ones to do. I guess some things haven't changed in the world of Transformers.
She also got her first series of shots. They were the first salvo against Hepetitis B, Rubella, Diptheria, Rotavirus, and possibly something else that is slipping my mind, since one of the shots had multiple vaccinations contained within.
PG response to the shots was not what I was expecting. I was expecting instant objections to a needle going into her, but instead, she just gave a look that said, "well... that's odd." It wasn't until the needle was pulled out that she got all upset about it. The other two needles (the rotavirus vac was oral) were progressively objectionable, as she started to pick up on what was going on. She was pretty mad at us after the last one.
The shots were supposed to make her sleepy, and for a few hours she was indeed the very picture of angelic slumber. But when she finally woke up... boy howdy was she in a bad mood! Poor baby was screamin' like a banshee with a stubbed toe.
Happily, she calmed down in time for her cousin Todd's birthday party. She spent most of the time there looking around at all the unusual faces and not really thinking about the little holes in her leg.
The doctor also recommended that we start getting PG into a nighttime routine. Up until now, we've been just letting her fall asleep in our arms and then putting her into bed. We're told that it would be better to put her in bed while she's still awake and let her fall asleep on her own. And to do it at the same time each night following more or less the same routine (the wildcard being whether or not she gets a bath on a given night.) That way, she won't depend on anyone but herself to get her to sleep.
So we tried that last night, and it was pretty much a disaster. She cried more or less continually in her crib from 7:45 to 9:15 before we gave up the ghost and put her to sleep in the usual way. We think she's still hurting from the shots, so I guess we'll cut her a break for another night or two and then work our way back up.
********************
I was shopping for a birthday present for Todd, and of course, I went straight for the Transformers section at Toys R Us. A lot has changed since my day in the Transformers department. For one thing, they look more like the movie version, by and large. But the thing that got me was that they had diversified from just toy robots that can turn into cars or planes or insects or whatever. Now, there are voice-changing helmets, Optimus Prime vs. Megatron boxing games, and a "Cyber-Stoming" Optimus Prime that doesn't transform. I ask you, what is the point of having a Transformer that doesn't transform?
I ended up getting an Autobot that transforms into a Pontiac Somethingorother. It was a hit with both Todd and Jason, though it's tricky enough that they have to get my brother to do the transforming for them. Even I had some problems at first. And this was one of the easier ones to do. I guess some things haven't changed in the world of Transformers.
Monday, June 11, 2007
One of Us... One of Us
I'm in HTML class right now, and I'm discovering how much better websites look in Internet Explorer 7, rather than Firefox.
Might I be having inclinations to start using the same browser that 90% of everyone else uses? Sad to say, I very well may be.
My apologies to everyone hoping this was an update on the exploits of PrettyGirl. I'll have such an update soon.
Incidentally, those of you who read the old website back in the day probably know that being in an HTML class is kinda like being in a Walking 101 class for me. But it's part of the ciricullum, and pretty soon we'll be getting into stuff that I don't already know, like, really really well.
Might I be having inclinations to start using the same browser that 90% of everyone else uses? Sad to say, I very well may be.
My apologies to everyone hoping this was an update on the exploits of PrettyGirl. I'll have such an update soon.
Incidentally, those of you who read the old website back in the day probably know that being in an HTML class is kinda like being in a Walking 101 class for me. But it's part of the ciricullum, and pretty soon we'll be getting into stuff that I don't already know, like, really really well.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Slowly Entering The World of PrettyGirl
It's happening very sporadically, but PrettyGirl is starting to smile. I'm pretty sure she is, anyway. Last Friday morning, I set her down on her changing table and she smiled at me. Not just an upwards curl of the mouth, but the crinkly eyes and everything. And she was looking in the general direction of my face, so I can only assume that she was reacting to my presence. But then it was back to random stares with a blank face, so I don't know. She hasn't done it much since.
Of course, if you've seen the pictures, you know that she smiled at a televised image of Matt Damon weeks ago. I guess if you have to come in second to anyone, when it comes to who your daughter initially smiles at, I guess you can do worse than Matt Damon.
Actually, I was the third, if you count Mr. Damon, since she did the same thing to M the day before she did it to me.
PG is getting very good at holding up her head. She can't do it for a long time, but she's still young.
M and PG went on a Big Trip to central Virginia to see a New Orleans friend who came up to visit family. Reports from the field indicate that PG noticed the change in surroundings, and her interest in (or distress over) it all kept her awake, but relatively quiet, well into the evening.
Of course, if you've seen the pictures, you know that she smiled at a televised image of Matt Damon weeks ago. I guess if you have to come in second to anyone, when it comes to who your daughter initially smiles at, I guess you can do worse than Matt Damon.
Actually, I was the third, if you count Mr. Damon, since she did the same thing to M the day before she did it to me.
PG is getting very good at holding up her head. She can't do it for a long time, but she's still young.
M and PG went on a Big Trip to central Virginia to see a New Orleans friend who came up to visit family. Reports from the field indicate that PG noticed the change in surroundings, and her interest in (or distress over) it all kept her awake, but relatively quiet, well into the evening.
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