Last night I marked another item off my mental list of things to do with this website, by supporting Gravatars for the comments.  Since I haven’t been requesting e-mail addresses in the past, none of the old comments will show Gravatars.  If you’re a frequent commenter on this site and you want me to retroactively apply your e-mail address to any comments you have left on this page send me an e-mail telling me what e-mail address you use, or just leave a comment for this post with the e-mail field filled in and I’ll use that address.

A whole new set of photos has been added to the photos page.

These pictures cover a day at the pool, Emma’s first experience eating food from a spoon, and a Labor Day weekend trip to Edisto Island and Charleston, SC with Stephanie’s parents.

Enjoy!

Lots has been going on in our lives lately, but I’ll start this post by discussing one that many of you already have heard about.  My company is closing down their Charlotte office in six months.  A few people have been offered relocation to other offices in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and France, but not many.  A lot of people will be let go in two or three months.  And a few of us are fortunate enough to be offered jobs through the entire “transition period.”  I am in that last group, which means that if I stay through the end of March I will get a pretty substantial severance package (if I leave before then, the severance payment is much smaller).  I’m not sure what we will be doing from here, but I’ll try to keep everyone updated.

In more pleasant news, I thought I’d give some updates on Emma’s development.  She has turned into quite a giggler.  There are a few things that consistently trigger this giggling.  First and foremost, holding her in front of a mirror (especially while moving her forward and backward in front of it) will always make her stop crying and start smiling and laughing.  Another way of making her laugh it so simply let her see Punky.  It doesn’t matter what Punky is doing, she can even be sleeping.  When Emma sees her, she starts laughing.

A few days ago I spent most of the morning working from home, and I got to see Emma watch her Baby Galileo DVD.  This was very interesting.  Basically, random stuff comes by while classical music plays, and occasionally they show babies playing, or they’ll have a young kid say a word like “sun” or “moon”.  It reminded me a lot of A Clockwork Orange, when they brainwashed the guy by forcing him to vidie the ultraviolence while they played Ludwig Von.  I’m not sure if Baby Galileo is trying to brainwash viewers or not, but I had a strong urge to assassinate public officials after viewing it.

In other news, Emma learned to make the “d” sound about a week and a half ago.  This means that occasionally she sits there and says “da da da da da da da da!”  I’m trying to teach her that “da da” references me, by responding to her whenever she says the phrase.  I’m not sure how well its working, because she also says “da da da da da da” when she’s looking at Punky.  We’ll see.

As far as locomotive skills, Emma’s still not able to crawl and certainly not walk yet, but she has mastered rolling over.  She’s close to being able to sit up on her own, although she’ll tilt over to one side or the other after a minute or so.  She is also very aware, in that she’ll follow people around the room, and she can figure out where people’s voices are coming from.

I guess that’s enough updates for one post.  Until next time, keep on.. doing whatever it is that you do.. !

I’ve been meaning to put up some videos for a while, and now I’ve finally done so.  Sorry there are so many, in the future I’ll make them less six-at-a-time.  Anyway, this should give those of you who haven’t seen her much (and those of you who have but can’t get enough) a chance to see her in movement.

Note: I’ve tested this video player with IE 6, IE 7, FF3, Safari (Windows Beta), Chrome Beta, and Opera 9.  Please let me know if it does not work for you.

First video (below) is from last July (at just under four months old).  Here you’ll see and hear Emma’s shrieking laugh as I kinda growl into her belly.

Next is a video from the same day, wherein you can see Emma paying with her Elerat before dinner.

The next video is also from July.  Here I try to show you Emma’s reaction to Punky.  Also, I hate the way my recorded voice sounds (so does everyone I guess).

Here we have a video of Emma’s first time eating food.  I had forgotten how much better at eating food she has gotten since then.

Next is a video from just last week of Emma sitting up (with some help from a pillow) and playing with a moose (she thinks she’s the next Sarah Palin1).

And to finish off this videostravaganza, we have a video of Emma showing off her rolling skills.  The final roll seems to defy accepted laws of physics.  It reminds me of a wheel that has been weighted at the top so that it will roll uphill.  Also, Punky walks by and says hi.

OK, that’s all for now.

Emma has hit a very frustrating and tiring milestone, well, it really isn’t a milestone, it is just a phase I wish we could move past.  We finally started being able to sleep through the night about a month and a half ago.  We quit being the kind of parent that went upstairs at the slightest stir to quiet and comfort so that Emma would learn to self sooth and put herself back to sleep.  It was great after only like four nights of me having to get up and turn the monitor off and sit up in the living room so that Kip could continue to sleep, she quit waking up.  Then suddenly, last night at 2:30 am, Emma woke screaming.  I almost went up stairs, but refrained and she did eventually quiet only to start screaming only fifteen minutes later.  I was concerned because we had only just lowered the level of the mattress in the crib that evening, and I was afraid her pacifier had fallen out under the crib bumper.  When I did get upstairs I was unable to find the paci in the crib, so I replaced it with a new one and she did eventually calm  herself down enough to go back to sleep.  In the morning I found the paci on the floor next to the crib.  I hoped that this was a one time occurrence and things would be back to normal this evening.  Well, as you can see by the time stamp of this post, and the possible incoherence of the rambling that it in fact has not gone back to normal as I had hoped.  (Thank goodness for spellchecker too.)  I’m going to check in the morning to see if Emma is finally cutting her first tooth and that is why sleeping all night and taking good naps during the day has once again become difficult for her.

She has calmed down and gone back to sleep, so I am too.
“Good night stars, good night air.  Good night noises everywhere.”

My mom called me today, and this is how our conversation began:

Me: Hello.
Mom: Hey.
Mom: Do you have gas?
Me: What?
Mom: Do you have gas?
Me: ...
Me: ..No?
Mom: For your car, do you have gas for your car?
Me: Ohhh.. yes.