Poppy’s Room, Now With Mural

My mom and her friend Joanne painted a wonderful mural on Poppy’s room. I decided to play with a very fun tool called photosynth to stitch together several photos into one unified picture or the room in 3-D (sort of). It will not work except on IE and FF and you may need to install a viewer (it’s safe, but an annoyance). Regardless, this is my first photosynth and I may make more… not sure at the moment.

Or view it on the photosynth site at: Poppy’s Room

Home From Houston After The Holidays

We went to Houston this year, for Poppy’s first Christmas and spent almost a week with my family.  Everyone loved and was amazed by Poppy, of course and she did splendidly.  She traveled quite well, sleeping for the first part of both flights and playing quietly for the second.  She also did a remarkably good job dealing with all the people she didn’t really know and the back and forth craziness of going from house to house to house.  We of course had a great time and look forward to seeing all of the family again this summer for the bi-annual reunion (every two years).

We Refinanced Our Mortgage Today

We have refinanced (or at least started the process) and locked in at 4.96 after paying a point (it was 5.6 without the point, lenders wanting up-front money and assurance in today’s market). We are rolling in the point and closing costs into the new loan and we’ll still be saving $140/month over our current loan (and if we hadn’t rolled in the costs, it would only have saved us $21/month more).

Obviously, this may be biased, but here’s an article that helped me make up my mind:

Say Hello to the Best Rates in History
by Victor Burek
Posted Dec 17 2008, 08:11 AM

In today’s economy things are changing very quickly and you can chase rates for a while but you don’t want to miss the boat. I would advise all readers, determine a rate that makes sense as far as what it costs and how much you are saving. Once rates hit that level, lock, close and move on with your life. Rates can and will go lower, but there is much more room above for rates to go higher then below for rates to go lower. And keep in mind, LIFE happens, things can change, you could simple forget to make 1 payment to a credit card and your credit could fall and now you don’t qualify. One month ago, rates where 1% higher then they are now, 2 months ago rates where 1.25% higher then now. So, as you can see, things can move quickly.

It’s Been A Busy Couple Of Years…

The Mates Of State, The Story Of Taking The Family On Tour

There’s a great video done by Dan Harris of ABC news on the Mates of State and what the family does when they go on tour.

I love the wholesomeness of it and it fits right in with what I think they would be like.  This band is one of my absolute favorites and that’s only encouraged by this peak into their good parenting and family priorities.

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerindex?id=6318255

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=37203373110&ref=mf

Poppy Is Walking Like A Champ

So there’s no going back… Though she’s still holding on to fingers when offered (or when produced after her sometimes insistent request) she is walking all the way across rooms without assistance and often without falling.  For the most part, when she does fall, it’s fairly controlled and without incident.

All of our childproofing is being reassessed now.  It’s a best effort thing anyway - for the most part, she’s going to get into whatever she can, we just try to remove the most dangerous and delicate things from 4 feet or lower.

Birth Control Pills Affect Women’s Taste In Men

I thought this was a very interesting article

Birth Control Pills Affect Women’s Taste in Men

It’s all about scent. Hidden in a man’s smell are clues about his major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes, which play an important role in immune system surveillance. Studies suggest that females prefer the scent of males whose MHC genes differ from their own, a preference that has probably evolved because it helps offspring survive: couples with different MHC genes are less likely to be related to each other than couples with similar genes are, and their children are born with more varied MHC profiles and thus more robust immune systems.

A study published in August in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, however, suggests that women on the pill undergo a shift in preference toward men who share similar MHC genes. The female subjects were more likely to rate these genetically similar men’s scents (via a T-shirt the men had worn for two nights) as pleasant and desirable after they went on the pill as compared with before. Although no one knows why the pill affects attraction, some scientists believe that pregnancy—or in this case, the hormonal changes that mimic pregnancy—draws women toward nurturing relatives.

Photos Uploaded

I’ve finally processed and uploaded the photos from my camera.  We’ve got new ones from september, october, and november.  Most are of Poppy, but not all of them.  Some great halloween photos, some camping, and many other occasions where the camera was brought out.

You can see some on the homepage of this site, or poke around flickr at: http://flickr.com/photos/zeroasterisk/

A Recent Letter From My Mom, About Her Visit And Poppy

An email from my Mom who recently visited us. It’s a great recap and update on Poppy, so I’m just pasting in here:

I recommend becoming a grandmother — it’s the best! I have just returned from a week in Louisville with Alan and Anita…and Poppy, which included two Halloween parties, a wedding in Columbus, a long walk in Iroquois park to check out the fall colors, two swimming lessons for Poppy (with Anita), and progress made on Poppy’s room mural by my good friend, Joan Firster and me. Lots of walks, quality time with Poppy, and with Alan and Anita, dining out, dining in, a little gardening, and a delicious pre-Thanksgiving feast at Karen and Bryan’s, plus a tour of their amazing new back yard and brick patio.

Poppy (who was 9 months on Oct. 24, and is holding steady at 19# [60 percentile for weight and measuring 29″ [90 percentile for height: ) is all about mobility these days–pulling herself up to a standing position and holding on while she walks around tables, chairs, sofas, and taller toys, like her current favorite: plastic kitchen appliances (see photo). She climbs the steps without hesitation and when she gets to the top, she’s ready to go down (holding on to your two pointy fingers), and at the bottom, she can hardly wait to turn around and climb up again. I spotted her up and down one day 8 times till I had to stop!

Another fun activity that never gets old is that she likes to dance. If she’s sitting, she’ll rock back and forth on her bottom and sometimes also move her arms. If she’s standing and becomes aware of music, she will bend those knees and be-bop up and down. She’ll dance to silly songs you might sing, even if you’ve forgotten some of the words. It’s all the same to her if she can catch a beat.

Besides mom’s milk, she is eating a variety of fruits and veggies but no sugar, milk, or peanut butter that might get her into trouble. She’s got 2 teeth on the bottom and 4 on the top, and it’s remarkable what those teeth can do. She takes about 3 naps a day, plus car trip naps are extra. Her naps keep everyone on an even keel. Alan and Anita both realize they’re very lucky that Miss Poppy is such a good baby and that she’s healthy and, of course, above average.

Photos include two of Poppy in her Halloween costume: she was a Roller Derby Girl, complete with fishnet stockings. Check out the “skates” Anita made. There are also two of the family at Iroquois Park with fall color all around. Fall color in Louisville seems electric –especially the reds. Beautiful! I also reminded them how lucky they are that all those trees exhibiting fall color are on their neighbors’ lots and not theirs. I know first hand as we have lots and lots of leaves to rake every year, but without the electric colors. (would you believe brown?)

Hard to get back to life at the farmette….without the Poppy sounds, hugs and kisses, and all that Poppy energy. Sigh.

xxxooo
Grannie C

Poppy Update @ 9 Months

We went for Poppy’s nine month old check up today and she is starting to slim down and lengthen. At her 7month visit, she was 19lbs and 27.5inches, and now she is holding steady at 19lbs and up to 29inches. There were no vaccines today - woohoo!

After her visit and a good nap, we were playing downstairs and she took her first preliminary, wobbly steps. It was just 2-3 steps a time or 2, but it was pretty amazing. She wouldn’t repeat it later, but I have a feeling we’re in for a world of trouble soon! She also waved bye bye for the first time today. Seems like she hits a milestone or 2 right before each of Grannie C’s visits…not sure if that means we want her to come more often cause it’s neat, or less often cause it’s all going so quickly!

–(update from Anita)

Poppy The Talker

Anita recently pointed out to me that Poppy has been talking to herself for weeks.  I noticed it and never remarked on it because it seemed normal, but it is worth remarking on.

She will be crawling around, or cruising, or riding in a carrier or playing with a toy… often during a period or play or concentration, she will start babbling really quietly.  A lot like talking to yourself, she just talks away while she’s working on whatever she’s working on.

Yesterday, Anita saw her playing with her kitchenette-toy and she was babbling… but there was something different about it.  According to Anita, Poppy was acting and babbling like she was really playing pretend; putting things into and taking them out of various compartments in the toy, talking to them and the kitchenette and whatever else…. but all very quiet and under her breath.  She’s not talking to us or for us to hear and congratulate her… she’s talking for her own purposes.

Most Of The Poppy Photos From September Are Uploaded

I have uploaded most of the photos from September and the first half of October.  We have another card to process at some point, but this should be the majority.

September

October

This American Life, For The Win - Re: Talking To Our Kids As Much As Possible

364: Going Big

All of TAL is always great, moving, funny, and every other positive adjective I could think of (yes, I’m a fanboy)… but the first act in this show is about baby education and it’s importance…

Paul Tough reports on the Harlem Children’s Zone, and its CEO and president, Geoffrey Canada. Among the project’s many facets is Baby College, an 8-week program where young parents and parents-to-be learn how to help their children get the education they need to be successful. Tough’s just-published book about Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem’s Children Zone is called Whatever It Takes. You can see a slideshow of more photographs from the project here. (30 and 1⁄2 minutes)

It’s worth listening to, but basically, one of the points I was struck by (@~11min) was that one of the main factors in the difference between successfully bright children and those who aren’t. The difference is that successful children heard more words… in the study cited, the “kids who made it” heard 20 million more words in the first 3 years and thus developed a bigger vocabulary early on, and could more easily handle the other basic building blocks of learning. If those building blocks are missing, they are hard to get later. (@~14min). Also “children of professionals” tended to hear 500,000 words of encouragement and only 80,000 words of discouragement, whereas “children of poverty” typically heard the opposite; 80,000 encouragement and 200,000 words of discouragement. (@~17min)

I’m sure all of us parents are doing great on this front, and in fact some of us have talked about this exact topic… but I was struck by the profundity of the topic and am myself encouraged to talk to poppy more, just doing idle tasks and whatnot. 

“now we are sweeping the floor.  now you are eating something random off the floor.  now we are looking out the window.  now we are listening to NPR.”