Lifechanges ... Delayed

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2008-07-01T16:08:00.002-04:00

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2008-03-26T18:44:00.002-04:00

Carter has sent you this Multimedia Message Click here to see the message Addendum My 1,000th post, months after last

Thanksgiving 2007

2007-11-22T20:47:00.000-05:00

Celeste wasn't too keen on the Thanksgiving festivities at my cousin's this afternoon. Soon after we arrived, she was sulking around my legs and saying she wanted to go home. Eventually she warmed up to some of her second cousins' toys and a big block of stilton. A bit later, however, she ran over crying about a noise. It might have been a passing plane or something on the street or ... we're

It Wasn't Me

2007-10-19T18:50:00.000-04:00

When I saw "Overheard in D.C." today, I had to stop and wonder if I'd ever ridden on a Circulator Bus with Celeste:Last friday on the DC Circulator Bus, around Washington Circle/Pennsylvania Avenue: A 3 or 4 year old girl is sitting with her father, commenting on what she sees out of the window. All of a sudden, apropos of nothing, she suddenly announces in a loud voice: "I just want to go CRAZY

Now She Is Three

2007-09-04T21:09:00.000-04:00

Today is Celeste's third birthday, marking the beginning of some seriously undelayed lifechanges that continue to build day after day after day. It was a bit of a double-whammy for her today: She turned three and she had her first day of nursery school. Both went pretty well. Evelin made her some cupcakes (the requested orange sponge cake recipe with royal icing) and this evening she received

Have You Seen This Mascot?

2007-08-26T20:55:00.001-04:00

Louie greets some fans. Originally uploaded by Throwingbull If so, don't tell Celeste. This afternoon, we caught part of the second game in a double header between the Erie SeaWolves and the Bowie Baysox. It was Quinn's first ballgame, and Celeste's first since she was about 9 months old. Originally, the game was scheduled as a single game, but last night's game was suspended on account

Natural Born Journalist

2007-07-17T21:55:00.001-04:00

Celeste has a bit of the journalist in her: She is really good at recounting things that have gone on during the day (albeit sometimes confusing something that happened one afternoon vs. another or maybe confusing reality with something from a story she's read) and she loves finding out who people are and what they're doing. She often will point at someone — across the park, in line behind us at

Dogs for the Arts

2007-07-16T18:23:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, the local park had it's annual "Dogs for the Arts" day. They had a dog-and-owner look-alike contest, paw painting, and a few other events ... and a lot of dogs. Given that Celeste has decided a while ago that we are all dogs — if you refer to her as a little girl, she corrects you, "little puppy!"; or if you ask her to wash her hands, she responds, "no, paws!"; and everyone has

What Book Is This?

2007-07-13T21:41:00.000-04:00

Tonight, after the girls were in bed, Evelin had a mission for me: Retrieve a bookcase from a porch two towns over. Apparently, it was something off Freecycle that hadn't been claimed and Evelin thought it would help our book "problem." (I use scare quotes on the word because I don't think it qualifies as a problem, it's just a lot of books, falling off shelves and forming piles around the house

Is This Thing On?

2007-07-10T20:58:00.000-04:00

Hey, long time no blog. I'm still alive. The girls are all well. I've just between work and family gotten out of the habit of blogging, which is a shame because Quinn is growing rapidly and learning so many things and Celeste is coming up with a million cute, quotable lines every day. Two examples:Quinn: Last weekend, she signed BIRD pointed at a tree, said "bird" clearly, pointed again, and

Conversations With Celeste

2007-05-01T21:57:00.000-04:00

There's a ton I need to blog — Vegas, New England, first child vs. second child, usw. — but I've been too swamped to blog it all. Still, there are a few things Celeste has been saying that I don't want to lose: First, a few weeks ago she had a little cut on her hand, so I put some hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) on it. She fairly quickly recoiled and started crying, "It stings like mad!" Second, a

1:30 a.m. PDT (Las Vegas)

2007-04-17T22:16:00.000-04:00

I'm finishing up another convention newspaper project here in Las Vegas and had an odd incident very early this morning. Things are going better this year than the last time I worked this show two years ago, and we're getting back from the printer at much "better" times, which is good because I've been running a fever and generally ill since getting to Nevada. After L--- dropped me off at The

Celebrating A Year of Quinn

2007-04-15T08:14:00.000-04:00

Actually, it's 14 pics for 12 months, but some of them were just too cute to not use ...

Reading Things

2007-04-13T17:07:00.000-04:00

For a while now, Celeste has been good at recognizing letters. She's perfect with uppercase letters and decent, but not perfect, with lowercase; she also seems to get the concept of letters representing words which represent ideas and things. When asked, she can spell dog and bus and a few other words — both vocally and using her blocks or foam letters. (For some reason, the almost always spells

Go Red Sox!

2007-04-10T22:04:00.000-04:00

This afternoon, Celeste, Quinn and I listened to the Sawx's home opener. Considering how Beckett was pitching and how most everyone who was not a Mariner was hitting, there was a lot of clapping and cheering and happy dancing ... and quizzical looks from Celeste and Quinn. Celeste, however, is starting to get it. She joined in the "Go Red Sox!" cheers several times and didn't argue when I

The Newest Member of Our Family ...

2007-04-07T08:23:00.000-04:00

I don't think it will help Celeste get over her fear of vacuum cleaners, but our new Roomba Scheduler arrived yesterday and got its first test spin this morning. The battery wasn't fully seated in the unit, and it didn't get the full 16-hour refresh charge it needed, so it only ran for about a half-hour, but it was pretty cool. (And we've been telling Celeste it's a dog cleaning robot — if we

Tea Party!

2007-03-31T20:55:00.000-04:00

Celeste, Stripy Pink, Ripley, and Sid have a tea party, which Quinn crashes ...

Talking to Toys

2007-03-31T19:50:00.001-04:00

This morning, we did a little rearranging of furniture and ended up putting a bookcase and a bunch of books back into Celeste's room. Last year, we had to move the bookcase out of her room because the books were too big of a distraction for her at naptime/bedtime. We're giving it another go now that she's about 90% stopped napping — if nothing else, having a steady supply of books in her room may

The First Camelia of 2007

2007-03-31T05:22:00.001-04:00

I took this pic last week, but only just now got the new camphone working to post it. Our camellia (Camellia japonica var. ????) finally started blooming!

Postcrossing: 304

2007-03-27T05:15:00.000-04:00

With work as crazy as it's been of late, I've neglected a lot of things, most obviously my blogging, but also Postcrossing. This morning, I took a moment and requested and sent off four new postcards and then ran the math on things. I have sent ±304 cards thus far to 32 countries. Most of them continue to come from/go to Finland. Here's the breakdown: 121 cards (39.80%) involve Finland; 42 (

Digging a Hole

2007-03-26T06:46:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, while emptying the new dirt from our the compost bin and pile to fill in some of the garden beds, I remembered my brother's hole to China. When we were kids, he spent a bit of time working hole in the side yard with the aim of tunneling through to the other side of the world. It ended up being only two feet or so deep, but had he made it through to the other side, it would have been a

Scene: This Evening

2007-03-24T20:54:00.001-04:00

We were at the park a bit late and saw I--- and P--- with their kids, B--- and F---. B--- is crazy about pirates, so I told I--- and P--- about Piratz Tavern, which I'd only just heard of a few days ago (via DC Baby). They said to e-mail them the info and they would definitely check it out. After they'd left, Evelin realized she was a bit peckish and suggested we give the tavern a try ourselves.

Scene: Earlier This Afternoon

2007-03-24T16:57:00.002-04:00

Evelin is upstairs napping. I am upstairs trying to get Quinn settled for a nap. Celeste is playing happily downstairs. Just as Quinn seems to tip over from resisting to giving in to sleep, a scream rises from downstairs. I pop Quinn in the crib (and crying commences), holler for Evelin to see if she can help Quinn, and then run down the stairs to find ... ... Celeste's butt and legs poking out

The Water Cycle

2007-03-23T21:30:00.000-04:00

The girls each have their bathtime water "thing." Quinn gets herself into a splashing frenzy, slapping the water until her head is soaked and she's sputtering. Celeste things this is a riot. The first time it happened, Celeste pointed and said (with volume): "She making hot water!" And ever since then the Quinn splash-o-rama has been dubbed "hot water" ... and now it sounds like Quinn is trying

Daylight Savings Time

2007-03-15T08:31:00.000-04:00

All in all, the girls seem to be adjusting to the early changeover to Daylight Savings Time fairly well. On Sunday, everyone was good and tired by 5:00 p.m. EDT, which made the normal 6:30–7:00 p.m. bedtime work out well. As the week's progressed, however, we have had a bit of slippage at least for Celeste. Last night, I kept her up a little later than she should have been because she'd had a