The Wonders in the Rye

On Ryland's Second Day of Skiing...

2011-02-24T18:39:00.011-05:00

I was much better prepared. I had a real camera! Papa showed Ry how to walk around on his new skis without getting them crossed and slide downhill a little. They were having a blast.

After snapping a few photos, Hickory, Nana, and I looked through various windows around the house at the skiing grandpa-grandson pair. At one point we lost track of them. Nancy made a joke about the "black diamond trails" on the wooded hill behind the house. Then both Hickory and Nancy got spooked by the joke and rushed to the bedroom windows facing the hill, looking to see if they were there.

No, not yet. But we all have been on a few of the wooded Billy trails on the back side of Greek Peak. It's only a matter of time!

Tantrums

2011-02-12T21:13:00.004-05:00

Near the end of our visit to the Sciencenter this late afternoon, we made our way back to the museum's lobby.

"Ride it! Dinosaur!"

OK. I helped Ryland climb on the dinosaur skeleton and started thinking about our exit strategy.

Ry's grin quickly disappeared as we watched the next 3 kids from 3 families throwing temper tantrums one right after another when the parents failed to convince them to leave willingly. Ryland got very concerned for his cohorts as he watched them cry and scream. I tried to explain to him that they weren't hurt. They just didn't want to go home!

With so many cool exhibits merely steps away from the door, who would want to go home? All the crying and screaming spoiled Ryland's mood. He climbed down from his dinosaur, said "all done," and started heading for the door. Whew!

On the 5 minute drive home, I thought about how the museum should re-arrange the lobby to create a little buffer area where parents could get their overly excited kids to quiet down and ready to leave, and how lucky I was not having to drag him out of there kicking like the other parents.

Well, after we pulled into the driveway, I opened Ryland's car door and started unbuckle him from the seat.

"Waaaaaaa! Go to Sciencenter! Go to Sciencenter! No go home!"

Standing Desk

2011-02-10T16:13:00.004-05:00

When Ry was only a few months old, he got very stuffed up from a bad cold. The poor little guy woke up at 4:30 in the morning and couldn't fall back to sleep. I put Ry in the ergo, walked around, and he would be out in minutes. As soon as I put him down, he would wake up screaming.

So I was stuck carrying Ry around the quiet house. Before long I got bored, I rigged up a little computer stand on top of Hickory's crafting table and started working.

I worked like that for the next 6 hours, standing up and carrying almost extra 20 pounds. And I felt great!

From that moment on, I knew I wanted a standing desk. It would take almost 2 more years before I got one. Using this very clever design I found from ikeahackers.net and about $360 in IKEA parts, I purchased the necessary IKEA parts and assembled this last week:

In addition to being more ergonomically correct, I was able to consolidate a whole bookshelf of stuff into the 4x2 "Expedit" shelf under the desk because space is no longer required for feet and chairs!

Nostalgia

2010-12-13T12:40:00.004-05:00

When our friend Christine visited with her 4-month-old Adie over Thanksgiving, we took out Ry's old rocking chair for the baby to sit while the adults chatted. We haven't put the rocking chair back in storage yet. In the past couple of weeks we've seen Ryland stealing a few moments in his old favorite hangout spot.

Super Mom

2010-10-25T07:15:00.002-04:00

Yesterday Sonja drove her two kids by herself from Rochester to come hang out with us, "so Mario can get some work done around the house." We were thrilled to see them, and could definitely appreciate the difficulties of accomplishing anything around the house with little ones running around!

After visiting our favorite playground at Cayuga Heights Elementary School, we started the two-block trek back to our house. As we listened to Sonja negotiating with her two bickering boys on whose turn it was for a piggy ride from mommy, Hickory said: "Quick! You have to get a picture of this, and take a good look at the image every time you want a second one!"

So I did.

And all I can see is an image of a super mom!

You and Me

2010-08-29T13:38:00.003-04:00

Ry is starting to play with pronouns. The poor guy is struggling with "you" and "me," resulting in many confusing conversations:

"Do you want this last piece of sushi?"

"You eat it!" Ry pointed at the sushi enthusiastically.

"Yum!" thinking my son was being very generous.

"You eat it! You eat it!" (Translation: you mean daddy! You just ate MY sushi!)

Bean Picking

2010-08-15T22:06:00.005-04:00

Green beans from our CSA are very good right now. We ate up the ones that we had picked last week in no time. On Saturday afternoon Ryland refused to take a nap after lunch. After an hour of book reading, music listening, back patting, blah, blah blah, I was starting to put myself to sleep! With the sun shining and a nice constant breeze keeping the afternoon air from getting too hot, we decided to go pick beans! As soon as the afternoon plan was announced,

"Pick beans!" Ry shouted as he pushed himself out of bed, grabbed his shoes, and headed for the door. Get out of jail free!

So many green beans were on the plants that Ryland could actually identify them, pick them off, and put them in our bag. Not bad for a two-year-old help. When my hands were getting too full of beans, he would walk over and take them over to the bag. Just as we were having a grand time and making great progress in collecting beans for dinner, we got a surprise visitor:

What happened next was inevitable:

No, we had just beans for dinner. No chickens :-)

Daddy's Dirty Trick

2010-08-13T23:49:00.002-04:00

"No Pirates!"

Switch.

"No Rumba!"

Switch.

"No Raffi!"

After Ryland vetoed one song after another for our bedtime music, I wondered how parents survived before MP3 players were invented. I frantically scrolled through the list of music on my Droid smart phone... and I got an idea!

Switch.

"Norah Jones!" He is so predictable!

"Listen. This is Norah Jones!"

"Norah Jones!" He repeated.

"Ryland, we are listening to Norah Jones. Please put your head down and listen to her pretty voice. Norah Jones."

"Norah Jones. Pretty...."

I wonder how long before he can say "No Norah Jones" reliably.

Vacuum Boss

2010-08-08T21:55:00.002-04:00

On the very last evening at the lake house, Ryland walked around the kitchen after the bed time snack, pointing at the various crumbs we dropped during our week long vacation: "vacuum here. Vacuum here."

It was probably just one of his bedtime delaying tactics, but I thought I would let him have his way....

The vacation has been great, as long as we have the right expectations. This is only a vacation from our paid jobs. We still have to make sure the kiddo is fed, put to nap in the afternoon and sleep at night, didn't decide to jump into the lake while no one is watching, etc. There will be many many years before we can take a vacation from being parents.

Robin, without the "Hood"

2010-06-15T12:09:00.015-04:00

I had planned to finish the "Robbin Hood" tunic during the trip to Taiwan, in time for Ryland's second birthday. On the flight from New York to Hong Kong, I finished the front and back, attached the shoulder, and got started on the left sleeve. It's amazing how much one can accomplish when involuntarily strapped to a seat for 16 hours straight. I managed to sneak in a few stitches here and there in Taiwan. (Thanks, Patty, for snapping the incriminating photo when I wasn't looking). By the time my return flight took off, I was on the second sleeve.

That's when the plan fell apart. I was exhausted from the week-long trip. I had to work on getting over the jet lag, knowing five more hours of driving was ahead of me after landing in JFK at 7 am. A drunk unruly passenger seated a couple of rows behind us also made everyone on the plane very nervous. (The Cathay Pacific Airlines cabin crew was very professional and effective in containing him. The guy was promptly arrested by the Canadian police as soon as the plane pulled up to the gate for a scheduled refueling stop in Vancouver). Not a stitch of progress.

When Ryland's birthday rolled around on Sunday, all I got was "Robin."

I guess that's what parenting is all about. Plan for everything possible, hope for the best, and keep smiling when the outcomes invariably fall short. In just this week, when Hickory and I took off work early to visit our CSA farm, Ryland fell asleep on Nana's sofa. Instead of a nice evening walk and a bedtime story to wind down the day, he insisted on playing the "taking a shower" game that he "invented" in a tiny closed closet for most of the evening (Yes, daddy had to be in there with him the whole time).

Despite of all that, we survived the first two years, didn't we? Here's to hoping to complete the sweater before he outgrows it!

End of the Silent Films

2010-06-03T08:00:00.001-04:00

I didn't know what to expect when I came home after being away for 10 days. I talked to Ry a few times on the phone when I was in Taiwan. Each time he was sufficiently distracted by Papa and Nana who stayed at our house to help Hickory for most of the week that our "conversation" didn't last for more than a few seconds. I thought that was a good thing. Ryland seemed to have a blast with his grandparents around.

On Sunday I came home to a little talking machine that was a couple of inches taller than I remembered. Ryland greeted me with a big smile when I walked through the kitchen door. Since then he has been a little more clingy than usual. Ry was taking an afternoon nap when I left to catch the flight to Taiwan so I didn't get a chance to say goodbye. I think he is just making sure that I don't disappear again!

So our home videos have finally come out of the silent film era. Ry has been talking non-stop, without prompting, all the time since my return. Unfortunately, a good footage doesn't always happen when the good camera is around. I shot this one with my Motorola Droid smart phone, which had a little trouble synchronizing the audio with the video.

Link to the video

Off to Taiwan

2010-05-21T09:21:00.005-04:00

I am leaving this afternoon for Taiwan to attend my grandmother's funeral next week. I have been spending a good part of the past week preparing for the trip, but it doesn't seem to make me any more ready to leave Hickory and Ryland for 10 days, the longest I've ever been away from either of them.

They will get plenty of help from the O'Briens while I am gone, and I will try to pass the time stuck in a coach seat (20 hours flying there and another 20 hours back) by making Ryland this "Robin Hood" tunic from Fairy Tale Knits. I should be able to get most, if not all, of the sweater done, hopefully, in time for a coming-home present for Ry. The question is: can my 24" Addi Turbo circular needles make past the airport security? I will bring some bamboo needles as backups.

Here's a photo of my grandmother holding me when I was just a wee one. It also happens to be one of my earliest photos:

If 2 Words Make a Phrase and 3 Make a Sentence

2010-04-27T16:40:00.002-04:00

(I am sure Prof Bogel will cringe at my bogus definitions in English grammar)

Ry spoke his first spontaneous (without being prompted) sentence yesterday: "More spicy, please," and pointed at the spicy ginger candy he had been eating from his mother's plate.

And he said please!

Pear

2010-04-24T10:47:00.007-04:00

"Can I have a bite?"

"NOOOO!!!!"

Then Ry quickly took a bite out of every slice of pear on his plate.

Who taught him these fine manners when I wasn't watching?

Oh Boy

2010-03-24T12:26:00.008-04:00

As spring descends in Ithaca this month, Ryland went from a wobbling toddler to an active playful boy. His footsteps are faster and more secure and feelings more expressive. The weather finally allows us to venture outdoors to visit the playgrounds at Cayuga Heights Elementary School and Taughannock State Park on weekends. I hesitated a little at first, but eventually let him climb up the steps and come down on the slides by himself. He says hi and bye to his old pals and new acquaintances alike. At home we are getting used to having a little goofball walking around, turning everything into a game when we least expect it, and giving unsolicited sage advice. The other day Ry handed me an onion he took from the kitchen shelf: "Onion, onion!" while pointing with the other hand at the muffin batter I was working on.

I wonder where he got the bossy genes.

Adventures for this week: Papa and Nana started taking him to the Y for swimming lessons. Boating season is fast approaching and I insist on making sure he learns to handle himself in the water before letting him getting on a boat of any kind. I also started night weaning him. Hickory slept with him in the last 21 months, but since I took over this week, I am just starting to get used to getting kicked on the shoulder in the middle of the night and waking up to a baby bum in my face!

Winter's Last Stand?

2010-03-08T17:21:00.001-05:00

After the northeaster a week ago, Ithaca's weather turned decidedly spring-like, but not before Nancy, Hickory, Elly, and Ryland turned our backyard into the ultimate snowy playground. In addition to an extended network of walk paths, there are snow people, a snow castle, a snow pony, and multiple snow couches to hang out. If any former Ithacans miss our winter, click on the Recent Photos link on the right pane and check out the fun photos from late February to early Match.

I missed all the fun, unfortunately. Two Sundays ago I lifted too heavy of a load while shoveling out the driveway and injured my back. When I thought I was well on the way to recovery, I stupidly drove a carload of recyclables to the dump across town last Friday. Bad move, especially it is impossible to explain to a crying toddler with the ergo in his hands why Dada can't pick him up, let alone "ergoing him to sleep"....

This one is for Ah-Ma

2010-03-01T21:23:00.000-05:00

When my family first moved to Ithaca from Taiwan in 1988, language was a big barrier for us kids in school and for my parents at work. It was a struggle for all of us for a few years. The beauty is: once we overcame the language barrier, being bilingual has many advantages in life: I fulfilled Cornell's language graduation requirement in 5 minutes. I smile every time Google takes me to a Chinese language web page in my research.

Unless my mother comes to live with us in the future, I don't have high hopes for Ry being bilingual. The environment is just not there, but I can always try:

Video Link

We'll Get There, Too

2010-02-09T20:49:00.006-05:00

Last Saturday we drove 2 hours to western NY to attend Hickory's grandparents' 65th anniversary party. In addition to the many old, young, and no-so-young people in attendance, there was good food, Laurel's 150 cupcakes with incredible chocolate toppings (I ate two), a marriage proposal that almost didn't happen (they were on the last flight out of Washington before the big weekend snowstorm hit there), a mistaken coat with a wallet (Hickory's) lost and found, and lots of fun celebrations.

"Wow, we'll never catch up with those numbers from parents and grandparents," my sister Patty said when we chatted on-line today.

Well, we could, I pointed it out to her, if we lived to be 95. As matter of fact, Patty married her husband Dominic "young," shortly after graduating from college. So they actually have a few years on us!

Of course, this is all very theoretical because it's so hard to see that far ahead. But then, every journey begins with a small step. I am sure I couldn't imagine the second photo when the first photo was taken only a very short year and half ago!

(Yup, that's the same rocking chair, outfitted with custom cushions made by Nancy in the bottom photo).

Soft Feet

2010-01-17T21:10:00.002-05:00

Ryland would like to share his secret of keeping his feet soft with you. After his bath, Ry clearly was not satisfied with the lotion we applied and took the matter into his own hands:

Video Link

Brrr......

2010-01-13T07:21:00.005-05:00

I prefer to admire the beauty of Ithaca's winter from inside the house, but last Sunday I was out-voted. Both Hickory and Ryland were restless and cranky until we took a walk around the block. The frigid air froze everything in place. Even the dogs of Cayuga Heights hid under their warm couches with their extendo-leash, hoping their people would forget about the walk for the day.

Then Hickory started to chase Ry in the snow. His giggles started to fill the neighborhood with the wind.

I can't wait to take him skiing next year!

New Year Pose

2010-01-01T22:36:00.006-05:00

Ryland and I were fooling around with the camera tonight. Yesterday I put the "Sailor Rib" sweater I made for Ryland through the washer and dryer. The Blue Sky Worsted Cotton yarn is machine washable, but, according to our experiments with swatches, tends to soften up and shrink vertically in the dryer. I added an inch to the length of the body and slightly less to the sleeves, hoping the initial drying would make the sweater fit. Well, it worked to a certain degree. The body shrank to the perfect length, but the sleeves not so much. I put the sweater on Ry, folded up the cuffs, and thought it turned out to be pretty cute.

In the last 18 months, we've shamelessly used him for modeling numerous baby knitwear for the yarn shop's marketing materials. When Ry was a wee one, getting him to smile for the camera was the challenge. After he became mobile, Ry would rush for the camera whenever he saw it. Hickory and I had to team up on him: one distracted him while the other discreetly worked the camera fast, before he notices.

Tonight I finally got Ryland to pose for the camera! With the camera in hand, I patted on the couch, said "stay here," and he actually did. I stepped back and started flashing away. I couldn't believe it! Then I tried the coffee table. That worked, too. Afterward we sat down on the floor and reviewed the photos on the LCD screen. Ry pointed at each photo and said "Ryland! Ryland!"

OK.... Only if you can understand his not-so-perfect "R" and "L" sounds.

And Ryland also took his first photo with the camera tonight:

He Speaks!

2009-12-22T12:02:00.000-05:00

Ryland is learning new words on a daily basis. When we went shopping at Wegmans last Saturday morning, we spent the entire time practicing "Ah-Ma" (That's Taiwanese for Grandma). Then we went to the greenhouse in the afternoon to show off to my mother. When we first got there, Ry was being his shy self and wouldn't say a word to anyone. We walked around a little bit. When Ry turned around and didn't see Grandma (who had gone to the bathroom), he started looking everywhere, calling "Ah-Ma! Ah-Ma!"

Uncle Tony and Mom were so impressed that they sent us home with a new orchid to add to our collection. That would be our eighth plant. We have 7 orchids in front of our living room window. At least one of them is blooming at any given time. Right now one is in full bloom and there are buds all of the others. So we might have all orchids blooming at the same time this winter!

Here are more photos of the boys goofing around....

Christmas Tree Is Up!

2009-12-09T23:32:00.006-05:00

Hickory and Ryland put up our Christmas tree this week. Well, mostly Hickory, anyway. When I came home on Tuesday evening, there it was in the middle of the living room.

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEaJGZ0kVt4

Naturally Ry doesn't remember his first Christmas tree last year. Now he thinks there is a great tree for hanging his toys in the living room, and all the ornaments in the tree are his toys.

Haircut

2009-12-04T20:54:00.008-05:00

Ryland got his first haircut yesterday. I couldn't convince Hickory to cut his hair even after two strangers asked in a week if Ryland was a boy or a girl. Nancy finally convinced her it was time and cut Ryland's hair yesterday while they watched Billy worked on the new railing for our stone steps outside.

He looks a lot more grown up now, doesn't he?

Nancy and Billy went to see Laurel's art show in New Paltz today so I took the day off to hang out with Ry. We had a fantastic time visiting my mother at the greenhouse (where Grandma introduced graham crackers to Ryland, who will probably never touch another teething biscuit again!), running errands, baking muffins, and crashing the December Happy Hour at the yarn shop!

A Very Swedish Day

2009-11-23T21:32:00.016-05:00

Today I made a 400-mile run to the nearest IKEA in our Volvo stationwagon for a load of furniture for the store and the house. It was a long overdue trip, partially because Hickory and I both wanted to go to IKEA. We couldn't bring Ry because we needed all the room in the car for the cargo. Hickory and I debated for weeks on who should go. We couldn't settle the argument, so we waited. Before I left yesterday, Hickory said: "Oh, I am so jealous because I want to go, too!"

On the 3.5-hour drive down, I thought about how much we both had looked forward to go furniture shopping in a stationwagon, and then felt decidedly middle-aged and parental. When did this become the highlight of our life?

To make up for any possible hurt feelings of those who stayed home, I brought presents for everyone: IKEA chocolate for Hickory, IKEA cookies for Nancy who watched Ry for most of the day, and an IKEA toy organizing shelf for Ryland. Yup, no trip to IKEA can be completed without extra furniture that wasn't on the shopping list. The biggest of the "extras" from this trip went to Ryland.

After dinner we set out to assemble the shelf. Ry first sat on top of the unopened box and rode it (completed with his truck engine roar) like a horse. After convincing him to get off so I could open the box, Ryland's eyes lit up and started helping me moving all the pieces out of the box. Being a helpful guy, Ryland insisted on ~~pre-scratching every piece~~ helping, moving pieces from there to here, and handing us a random piece when we weren't looking. With the two best Allen wrenches from our toolbox in both hands, he tried to turn the screws just like Mommy and Daddy.

"Can Mommy or Daddy show you how to turn the screws?" Hickory and I offered our help.

He grunted and whined. That's Ryland Speak for no thank you. They are mine!

Using the little dinky Allen wrench that came in the package, it took a while for Hickory and I to finish the shelf, but not before Ry crashed and had to be taken to bed.

I'm sure he'll like the shelf when he sees it tomorrow.

This Thursday Evening

2009-11-05T21:15:00.002-05:00

While Hickory was out teaching her class, Ry picked up my iPod, turned it on, pointed at the picture of Hickory and said: "Mama!"

I bet it won't be long before he figures out how to "slide to unlock...."

Yikes!

Getting Caught....

2009-10-30T09:36:00.001-04:00

He did it!

Rhinebeck

2009-10-19T07:38:00.010-04:00

Yes we made it there (and back!) Ryland slept most of the 4-hour car ride. When he was awake, Ry made his demands from his Captain's Chair by pointing at them: drink! Cheerios! Music! Put the visor down and turn on the vanity lights (which he loved!) Hickory and I are very happy to leave the car-hating phase behind us and looking forward to many road trips with Ryland!

Besides the $12 entrance fee, nice hand knitted wear to show off was required at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival. So besides sheep and wool, gorgeous hand knitted sweaters were everywhere. I wore a hat made by Hickory and Hickory had a hat that I made her. (Sweaters are simply beyond our reach since Ry's arrival). As for Ryland, he had the hat Suze made her. The pair of mittens Dawn made Hickory kept Ry's fingers warm and at the same time turned him into a lobster as he toddled around the fairground.

Ry checked out the sheep, lamas, and alpacas. Unfortunately, he fell asleep before we got to the sheep dogs. Hickory "stalked" knitwear designers throughout day: "Hey that's _____!" We did say hi to Anne Hanson when we encountered her in a barn. At least she recognized Hickory when we introduced ourselves because we are one of her retailers.

However, when we met Laurel for breakfast at the Morning Brew Cafe in Stone Ridge on our way home on Sunday, Hickory and I totally missed Steve Buscemi who was there for coffee!

More Road Trip

2009-10-14T20:47:00.004-04:00

This weekend we are meeting a bunch of friends at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY. Despite our failed attempt for the same road trip last year, Hickory and I are optimistic about our chances this year.

Over the last couple of months, Ry has been making great strides in transitioning from a baby to a toddler. He gets more interactive each day. Two weeks ago we visited Mario, Sonja, Clayton, and Leon in Rochester, and they visited us here this past weekend. Nancy has been hosting several play dates at our house during the week. This evening Ryland charmed numerous Wegmans shoppers when we made fools out of ourselves waving and grinning at the close-circuit TVs near the entrance, as we waited for Mommy to check out. A college girl stopped and smiled at Ry for a few seconds. Her eyes popped and jaw dropped even more when Ry waved and said bye back at her. What a flirt!

Wish us luck this weekend! We are going to sleep dreaming of lots and lots of sheep tonight!

One Rainy, but Fine Sunday

2009-09-27T22:20:00.003-04:00

When Knitting Etc. was just starting out, we used to have monthly staff meetings. The staff would gather at a restaurant on a Friday evening (the only night no one had to teach an evening class) and talk (yarn) shop. Asia Cuisine was our regular spot, because the sushi was good. While the women talked yarn, I listened and... ate sushi. Especially before I learned how to knit, I ate lots of sushi.

Those were the good old days. Today we finally had our first staff meeting in more than a year! Going to a restaurant for an evening meal is out of the question with a toddler's schedule. My mother and aunt babysat Ry for a couple of hours in the morning so Hickory and I could meet with the staff to go over a few urgent issues over CTB bagels. I wasn't sure how Ry would like it when I left him at my mother's house. But when we went to pick him up, he was happily playing with Aunt Maggie on the living room floor. *whew*

After Ryland's nap, Hickory suggested we check out the Sciencenter in this gray, rainy afternoon. The place was packed with kids of all ages among tons and tons of cool toys. Ry was immediately drawn to the dozens of duckies floating in a pool with water wheels and a slide before moving onto the foam stars that shoot up in a vacuum tube. During the short hour and half we spent there, Ry made a friend with a girl named Lea. We exchanged phone numbers. Perhaps we will meet there again soon.

OK. Real soon, because when we left the place at closing time, Ry stood stubbornly on the sidewalk in front of the building. He refused to leave and kept signing "More! More!" in the late afternoon drizzle.

Upgrade

2009-09-20T23:03:00.001-04:00

Ryland officially outgrew his rear-facing infant car seat. Last week at the doctor's office, Ry weighed 22 lbs and measured 32 inches (the maximum length for the seat is 30 inches). So today, he got an upgrade to a front-facing seat. He is much happier now that he has a commanding view of the car as well as the street.

Yes, his new first-class seat comes with a cup holder. Hickory and I are looking forward to finding all kinds of interesting things in it. Perhaps one of us will no longer have to sit in the back to entertain him? Perhaps.

Transformation

2009-09-11T07:46:00.011-04:00

When I left for work on Wednesday morning, Ry was a "crawler." When I got home in the afternoon, he had turned into a "walker." Just like that.

Hickory said they met up with Shanna and Iona at this magical spot called "Flat Rock" (where I have not been to) near Cornell Plantations and spent the afternoon exploring around Plantations and the creek. It must have been Iona's positive influence: she is three months older but started walking a lot earlier than Ryland.

Witness the result of the transformation yourself:

Good Bye to an Old Pal

2009-08-24T14:34:00.004-04:00

We had to say goodbye to Amos, our Australian Shephard, this morning.

We were lucky to have him in our family for the last five years of his life. We both changed a lot during these years. But Amos put up with all my changes, good and bad, without a single complaint. I can't say the same about me.

He will be missed.

And Old Ones I No Longer Have Time For....

2009-08-13T07:05:00.008-04:00

The book finally arrived. I managed to spare 2 minutes to scan the book long enough to see that I need a good kitchen scale. Getting a kitchen scale is easy. How I am going to find time to read the whole book. I don't know. I used to read, and this makes me think of the old hobbies that I can no longer pursue.

Reading is one. Knitting is another.

Last Friday was the monthly "Happy Hour" at the yarn shop. Since this event is much better attended in the winter months, I actually had time, after helping the customers, to sit down and partake in the knitting part of it.

It's a zipped vest (for myself) that I started a year and half ago, right before Ryland was born. The yarn, Cleckheaton Country 8 Ply, has been phased out at the shop in favor of the better-marketed-but-not-necessarily-better Cascade 220 Superwash. Ever since Ry learned how to grab things, my time for knitting evaporated. So every month when I help Hickory with the shop's Happy Hour, I might get to knit 2 rows. My progress in the past year was no more than 6 inches, finally almost arriving at the bottom of the armholes. At the current rate of my knitting and tasting baked goods, I will probably outgrow the size of the vest before it is completed, just like Ry outgrew the sweater I made him (the last completed knitting project):

New Hobby

2009-08-06T07:56:00.003-04:00

I can attribute the recent silence on this blog to my experiments with the only piece of equipment in the kitchen that I haven't really played with much until now: the oven. It all started with baking cupcakes for Ryland's birthday party a month ago. After putting Ry to sleep in the evening, I have been baking muffins of all kinds. In the photo are blueberry muffins. Hickory likes the chunky peach kind the best. Last night I turned a couple dozen plums from the tree in Mom and Uncle Tony's front yard into plum muffins.

Yesterday's NY Times reported raising chickens in the backyard is incredibly popular in this recession, even though it might not make much financial sense ("Keeping Their Eggs in Their Backyard Nests"). At least baking smells a lot better than chicken coop! On the other hand, as much as Ry likes the muffins, I suspect he might have more fun chasing chickens.

Oh yeah. I can't wait for this book to arrive from Amazon.... It's going to be fun.

You Missed All the Good Stuff!

2009-07-31T12:43:00.001-04:00

After dinner last night Hickory left to teach her Thursday night knitting class. Ry and I started our evening walk, sight-seeing around the neighborhood and (usually) getting Ry to sleep. The evening air was warm and dripped humidity of a hot summer evening. Since this is the end of July, I knew there wouldn't be too many like it left! We just had to go get some ice cream!

We walked, talked, and pointed at all the interesting things along the way. Our ice cream quest eventually led us to collegetown, where we got an ice cream cone and started walking back to Libe Slope to enjoy it. When we got to the top of Libe Slope, I looked down and saw Ryland... falling asleep in the cool breeze from the lake below.

So Ry missed out on what would have been his first ice cream cone, and slept through his first bus ride home. The second I put him in bed, Ry sat straight up like a piece of toast popping out of the toaster, looked around, then at me: "did I miss anything, Dad?"

Arrgh!

The Cell Phone Generation

2009-07-19T12:54:00.000-04:00

The four "toys" Ryland is not allowed to have are Mommy's and Daddy's cell phones and iPod Touches. If you ever call one of us when Ry is around, you'd know it's a struggle to carry on a conversation. Ry likes shiny gadgets. And the phone is just magical: Nana sometimes hides in that little shiny plastic box at night after she goes home. Whenever we start talking on the phone, Ryland has to see if Nana wants to talk to him from in there!

This week ~~the serial cell phone murderess~~ Laurel brought us all her ~~victims~~ old phones from the last couple of years.... We first removed the batteries so now Ry can have his own phone!

When I grew up, my thrifty mother didn't get a landline until I was in the third grade. We had to plan social visits days or weeks in advance, or, if visiting close friends or relatives, we simply showed up. People showed up at our door and made surprise visits all the time. My mother perfected the art of whipping up meals on the spot for however many people happened to be visiting at meal times. If we had to call someone, my parents either called from work or used the pay phone down stairs from our apartment. Life was simpler and more exciting at the same time! My now cell phone-carrying, video Skype-calling mother prefers simpler toys still. She gave Ry a toy "key ring" that she made. Ry loves the jingling low tech toy, too, and carries it everywhere he goes.

Hickory pointed out the other day that it might be a while before Ryland figures out what a traditional landline phone looks like.... because we don't have one!

Crashing a Concert

2009-07-10T22:43:00.003-04:00

When Ry and I took our after-dinner walk this evening, we heard music coming from somewhere on campus. We (well, I, since Ryland goes wherever I go, for now anyway) decided to follow the music to check out what was going on. We walked by Jessup Field, where a kiddie lacrosse tournament was taking place. Ry and I watched the little kids running with their sticks and coaches yelling from the sidelines for a while. We continued on our quest for the music's source.

During the day I work on the Engineering Quad, where it has been dead quiet since the spring semester ended. But this evening the campus was just bustling with people of all ages! Then I remembered CAU houses the vacationers (and their fancy cars) on the North Campus. We crossed the foot bridge and ended up on the Arts Quad.

A zydeco band was playing to hundreds of people on the Quad. Some were dancing; some just relaxing on the grass. Kids and dogs were running around everywhere. We walked through the crowd and sat down by Ezra Cornell so Ry could get out of the carrier. His arms were waving, legs kicking to the music.

"I know. A pretty cool walk, eh?" Ryland grinned back.

I asked the family sitting next to us what the event was. The grandmother told me the "college" has a concert on Fridays. I told her we just discovered this music on our walk.

"Oh, you live in one of the houses down there?" The dad pointed down the hill.

"No, more like a 10-minute walk that way. No hill to climb." I pointed toward the North Campus.

"Wow. So you live here. That's great!"

When I put Ry back into the ergo to take our leave afterward, we smiled and waved goodbye at our neighbors. I think they were a little jealous... that we live in this beautiful place in which they paid good money to vacation.

Can I PULEEAAASE Change Your Diaper?

2009-07-06T12:08:00.003-04:00

Since shortly after turning one, Ry thinks he's done with diapers. Despite of all the toys, books, fairies in the mobile hanging over the changing table, singing, storytelling, he refuses to get his diapers changed without a fight. As soon as we put him down, the big boy flips over on his hands and knees and tries to jump off the ~~baby torturing~~ changing table.

Yesterday, Laurel and Hickory showed Ryland how to put a diaper on his elephant, but no, not even a pink smiling diaper-wearing elephant could change his mind. Arrgh.....

Extremely Attached Parenting

2009-06-27T22:51:00.004-04:00

Last week Ryland got a MMR shot at his one year check-up. Yesterday measles-like rash started breaking out along with a low fever. According to the doctor's handout on the MMR vaccine, one out of 6 people suffer from this side effect. Well, what a lucky boy!

Whenever Ry gets sick, he becomes extremely attached. After Mommy left the house at 9 am to lead the Schaefer Yarn Tour, Ryland permanently attached himself to me and nothing else. I held him or carried him in the ergo while we ate, went shopping at Wegmans, and listened to music and felt icky together. Over the past year I have mastered going to the bathroom with Ryland, but unloading groceries is another story. It was like I bought all the 20-pound bags of rice at Wegmans and had to carry an extra 20 pound on each of the gazillion trips between the car and the kitchen.

We ate a late lunch after everything was put away. I asked Ryland if he wanted more food. The discomfort has affected his appetite in the last few days. I couldn't believe my eyes when he signed "more"! Hickory and I have been teaching him signs. Ryland can do "up" pretty reliably when he wants to be picked up, and "all done" after he gets sick of sitting in the high chair. "More" is considerably more sophisticated and he finally did it for me for the first time today. I happily handed over a noodle.

"Do you want more, or are you all done?" I tried again.

"More." I handed over a pea.

"Do you want more, or are you all done?" We are on a roll here!

"More." I handed over a kernel of corn.

"Do you want more, or are you all done?"

Ryland stuck up his nose and gave me an annoyed look, as to say: "I am not a dog. I don't sign for food like Amos barks for his!"

As we took an afternoon nap on the couch, with Ryland sleeping on top of my chest and snoring into my right ear, I knew my arms and shoulders would feel the effect of this extremely attached parenting tomorrow.

Photos of his royal cuteness will return soon (I hope), after his rash is gone.

Lefty?

2009-06-18T12:34:00.031-04:00

Ryland had his one-year checkup at the doctor office yesterday. He now weighs 20 lbs 6 oz and is 30 inches tall. He somehow turned into a skinny boy in the last few months.

The doc asked a very interesting question: "does he show a hand dominance?" Hickory and I didn't have to think very hard before concluding that Ryland is probably a lefty:

But then, he tried to brush his (2) teeth with the right hand:

We are pretty sure though. Ry feeds himself with the left hand almost all the time and usually reaches out with the left. The doctor says showing a hand dominance from early on is a good thing, developmentally.

Birthday Boy

2009-06-15T06:33:00.012-04:00

Ryland turned one on Saturday. Yup! He is no longer a baby. Mary from work e-mailed: "time flies when you haven't slept!" Ry and I spent the glorious Saturday morning (70 degrees and sunny. We get about 2 Saturdays like these in Ithaca a year) shopping at the Farmers Market and Wegmans. I love taking him to Wegmans. We skipped over a sea of parked cars to one of those spots reserved for "Customers with Children" all the way up front, watched people shopping, and saw the "watch out! A dad carrying a baby coming through!" expressions on their faces as they tried to get out of the way.

In the afternoon I went back to working on the yarn shop's on-line store. I've been devoting most of my energy on it in the last few weeks, hence the lack of blog entries. To our (very few) loyal and demanding readers: I heard your comments and questions on why I stopped posting, directly or through third parties. Balancing work and life (both at home and on-line) is the toughest thing I've had to deal with in Ry's first year. So much to do in so little time. I enjoy most of it, work or life, as long as I don't think about "the other stuff" I should be doing or might be missing.

Back to the birthday boy, the party was Sunday morning. 20 adults and 8 kids squeezed onto our little patio and backyard. It was lots of fun, except for Amos. The poor old dog took refuge downstairs away from the kids. The children, from 5 months to 3 years old, quickly sorted themselves into their own age groups to play together.

Nancy made a kiddie "table" from logs and the low stone wall on the edge of the patio. Billy brought his new electric bike to show off. He insisted everyone to ride to the top of the hill at the end of Sheldon Road to test out the electric motor. We were so occupied in the celebration that Hickory and I failed to take any photos of the cupcakes that I baked the night before, or Ryland blowing out the birthday candle!

No Sleep

2009-06-11T13:03:00.000-04:00

Good Morning

2009-05-12T12:56:00.005-04:00

"I wish the spring sun shines every morning in Ithaca, and I get up early enough to eat breakfast with my Dad...."

First Mother's Day

2009-05-11T12:29:00.005-04:00

On Ryland's first Mother's Day, the boys decided to give Hickory a day off. We went shopping (and showing off Ry's new shoes) at Wegmans in the morning. Ry loves people watching and Wegmans is the perfect place for it. As I carried him shopping around the gigantic store, Ryland looked all around him with a "deer in the headlight" blank expression on his face. Totally overwhelmed. An old lady thought he was bored. The guy at the deli meat counter ("Windy" says his name tag. Hickory and I have always wondered what his real name is) tried to make Ry laugh while he put together the sandwich meat for us. Ryland wouldn't give him a smile though.

It didn't matter. I knew Ry was having a great time! Wegmans was packed! In addition to normal grocery shopping activities, people were also buying flowers for Mother's Day (Wegmans' floral department is also one of the largest flower shops in town). Since the beautiful orchids at all the Wegmans stores come from my uncle and mother's greenhouses, I decided to buck the trend and got her a large watermelon and cantaloupe. Then we were off to see my mother at the Orchid Place.

My mother is a work-a-holic. She and her brother spent most of their days growing orchids at their greenhouses. Sure enough. On Mother's Day, we found my mother, uncle and aunt there when we arrived. We stayed for about an hour so Ryland could provide some baby entertainment during their lunch break. Everyone had a great time watching Ry crawling around, giggling, and making funny faces.

When we got back home, I realized we had accomplished one important milestone: in all of our morning's travels, Ry rode in the car in perfect content, playing with his toys and, from time to time, singing with the radio. (Anyone who wants to laugh at our definition of "traveling" should read Ryland's previous car adventures here and here). I'll try to remain cautiously optimistic for our next car trip.

Dinner Time

2009-05-09T14:35:00.004-04:00

It's amazing how much our table manners have improved as we grow up (well, or not), no?

Sick Baby

2009-05-03T20:51:00.005-04:00

Ryland has been running a low fever since yesterday. The little guy is pretty uncomfortable but does not have other symptoms of illness. So we are hoping it's nothing serious and will not get any worse. Because he wouldn't eat much, I fed him some grapes for lunch so he would at least get some vitamin C and liquid. He happily ate them up. Once in a while I slipped Ry a green pea or a kernel of corn. Every time after he realized he was tricked, Ryland would give me a dirty look plus a "How could you?" pout. It's really funny until I remembered how uncomfortable he must feel.

After lunch, we took a long afternoon nap. The on-line store for the yarn shop just has to wait for one more day....

Anyway, we can't have a photo of a sick baby headlining the blog. Here's a photo of 3 babies playing and eating dirt from last weekend's party.

Table Manners

2009-04-27T07:08:00.003-04:00

Ryland started eating at the table at meal times like a big boy.... Well almost. His table manners need some work. Ry likes to put his feet on the table and makes a big mess while feeding himself. Amos is still too timid around the baby though. He would wait until the baby is gone after the meals before coming to get all the goodies under the table.

This past weekend was Ithaca's first weekend with sunny 80-degree weather this year. Ryland could finally shed his winter pants and move around in his onesie. Arne and Jill had a BBQ in their backyard, where adults chatted around the fire and the 3 babies played. The parents didn't see the babies eating dirt in time to stop them, but Arne managed to take some photos of the babies with dirt hanging out of their mouths. Those photos are forthcoming.

On Sunday we enjoyed a relaxing day. Hickory and Ryland worked on cleaning up the stone patio. Hickory noticed quite a few bee nests between the stones on the patio. We will have to figure out how to convince the bees to nest elsewhere without resorting to nasty chemicals.

Vertical

2009-04-17T12:52:00.003-04:00

Amos says, "please don't let him come near me!" and then leaves the room.

Hickory and I are wondering when he'll discover kitchen cupboard doors and those loooong steeeep stairs down to the basement.... For now, Ryland is fascinated by shoes, especially the crocs I wear around the house in the winter. Nana got him a pair for Easter, but he is not ready to wear them yet. They just sit in the same pile with the toys.

What are Zombies Doing on My Blog?

2009-04-11T09:14:00.002-04:00

Please show my royal cuteness instead.

Zombies Aren't Funny

2009-04-09T06:31:00.007-04:00

Last week while driving I heard about the new book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies in an NPR story. I thought it was the funniest thing in the world. I went to Amazon the same night and pre-ordered a copy, paid a little extra for rush shipping and a nice gift wrap, and addressed the shipment to Hickory.

"Hi Dear. I bought you a little nice present. When the box from Amazon shows up with your name, go ahead and open it. It's for you." Hickory then went on her normal routine to get me to tell her what the present was like she always did whenever she knew one was coming. But I know. Below her pretended annoyance, Hickory could use a present.

When Hickory and I first started living together, we struggled to find the right amount of "alone" time to give to each other. Just as we thought we finally figured it out after a few years, the baby took virtually all of our "alone" time away. As much as we love Ry, we both need just a little time alone to organize our thoughts, read a page or two, knit a stitch or two, whatever.

Hickory has multiple copies of all Austen novels throughout the house. Besides the copies on the living room bookshelf, I often find the other copies at random places around the house: by the bed, in the bathroom, or on the TV room coffee table. I haven't even started counting the Austen DVD collection! These are well-read and watched copies, too. I don't think Hickory has ever spent a week away from Jane. As matter of fact, whenever The Complete Novel of Jane Austen is on top of the toilet, I know the girl needs her alone time badly.

So, this satire should at least good enough to be the bathroom copy, no?

No. "It looks funny but is way too violent for the Mommy hormones in me right now," declared Hickory after the book arrived, "maybe in a few years I'll like it." She probably was just trying to be nice and not hurt my feelings too much.

Oh, well. What was I thinking? Zombies are simply not funny. In retrospect, I should have tried the other Austen satires [npr.org] instead.

Hey, That's MY Toy!

2009-04-04T08:32:00.002-04:00

Last night when Ryland was nursing, I took advantage of the oh-so-few "free" moments to check out my new toy (a HP Mini 1000 netbook) on the living room couch. As soon as I opened the box and took out the mini-laptop, Ry looked up, got down to the floor, and raced across the living room on his hands and knees. When he got to there, he propped himself up on the couch and "stood" on his feet, for the very first time.

I sat there frozen in place, one hand guarding Ry in case he was to fall backwards, the other holding my new toy still in its plastic protective bag, away from the two waving arms of the little monster in front of me.

Earth Hour Feels Good But Reduces No Carbon Footprint

2009-03-29T11:35:00.009-04:00

In the past couple of weeks I received more than half dozen "invites" in e-mail and on FaceBook to participate "Earth Hour" by turning off all the nights in the house at 8:30 PM last night. According to the Earth Hour web site: "For the first time in history, people of all ages, nationalities, race and background have the opportunity to use their light switch as their vote – Switching off your lights is a vote for Earth, or leaving them on is a vote for global warming."

As much as I am for energy saving, we left our lights on. It's simply not practical for us: our schedules are driven by the baby (who's been sick and cranky for the past 2 weeks. More on that later). Moreover, even if the entire world switches all the lights off for one hour on a Saturday night, not an ounce of carbon emissions would be saved . Most electricity is generated by nuclear or coal-burning power plants. They generate a constant amount of electricity and can't be turned up and down on a dime according to very short-term demands. Since we have no practical way of saving large amount of unused electricity, any "electricity savings" from the Earth Hour would simply go to waste.

Anyone really wants to reduce his or her carbon footprint should try to reduce the average amount of electricity used: turn off lights when leaving the room every night or raise the thermostat on the AC by 5 degrees for the entire summer. Or, reduce the electricity usage during time of peak demand, such as turning AC off or raising the thermostat on the hottest afternoon of the summer. Or make the next car purchase a hybrid car, even when the gas sells for $2/gallon and there is no hope of recovering the hybrid car's higher cost versus that of a conventional gas vehicle over the car's lifetime.

Earth Hour doesn't do anything more than making everyone feel good about themselves. Reducing one's carbon footprint requires a lot more than turning off all the lights in the house for 1 hour on a Saturday night. Are you ready to make the required sacrifice?
.
Re: lack of recent baby updates: Sorry Lynda! Ry still hasn't beat the cold after 2 weeks. The poor guy is so congested that he doesn't sleep well at night. Last night he and I "slept" (i.e. he did, I didn't really) on the couch in upright position until 5 am. I have to admit: he is starting to wear his parents out. Hickory and I have been preparing for the largest yarn sale in upstate New York scheduled for the next weekend :-) We haven't been taking any new photos because our camera has been re-purposed by our latest project at the yarn shop: creating a Knitting Etc. online store! Thousands of photos need to be taken in that effort so the blog will remain photo-less until we get the camera back somehow. See all the exciting happenings you've been missing while you are away, Lynda?

The Latest Sacrifice...

2009-03-22T22:38:00.003-04:00

Is our bed. Last week Ry fell out of our bed under Daddy's watch, landed on the wood floor, and ended up with a big bump on his forehead for a couple of days. So the bed is gone and everyone sleeps on the floor.

The baby doesn't seem to mind though. Now he can explore all over the bed unrestricted.

Did you notice that electrical outlet in the photo behind Ryland? Well, that's our next problem....

How We Both Found Peace

2009-03-16T07:28:00.003-04:00

This is how I've been working and Ryland's been sleeping since slightly before 6 this morning:

We've been standing in front of the craft table in Hickory's craft room (One of her yarn stash shelves is visible on the left and bookshelves on the right). The sick boy didn't sleep in bed all night, but fell right to sleep in the ergo. Of course, as soon as I sit or lie down, Ry would wake up immediately.

Nine Months

2009-03-14T17:10:00.004-04:00

According to Lynda, "9-10 months is about as adorable an age as ... any?" Well, what do you think?

Each photo in the collage is taken at or around Ryland's each monthly birthday, from top left to lower right.

On the Eve of His Nine-Month Birthday....

2009-03-12T22:40:00.001-04:00

Ryland pooped on the potty like a big boy! Poor guy. He had been constipated for 4 days. I didn't get to witness the big event, but according to Nancy and Hickory,

"It was the cutest thing I have ever seen."

Still, I'll spare you of the photos.

Unfortunately, this afternoon Ry's slight cold turned into a fever so off to the doc's office we go tomorrow morning.

Mooooo!

2009-03-11T12:26:00.009-04:00

On the first day of our two-day mini-vacation, we went to visit Hickory's cousin, Cara, in Geneseo. It was sort of a test for Ryland... to see if his distaste for riding in cars changed. Well, Ry failed miserably, despite he is now twice the age since our last aborted roadtrip to Rhinebeck. After almost 3 hours of fussing, stopping, crying, and screaming (plus a speeding ticket.... What kind of heartless cop could write a ticket while a baby wailed in the back of a station wagon? Only in the cash-strapped State of New York!), we finally made it there. Ry was greeted by a converging herd of ~~very large doggies~~ cows as we exited the car. Ryland had a great time checking out and petting the cows on Aunt Phyllis' farm and playing with his second cousins. Oren is less than 3 months older than Ry. Even though he is about the same size as Ryland, Oren can walk around the house as he pleases, rearrange plastic wares in the cupboard, and eat real food with adults at the dinner table. Hickory and I took notes on what we'll be up against soon.

Our return trip was not entirely quiet, but much more peaceful. Nancy and Hickory discovered a pretty cool trick for calming Ryland, at least for a little while, even when the car was in motion. "Necessity is the mother of invention," they said. You'll have to ask the moms if you want to know....

I'm pretty sure this fun little trip will be our last roadtrip for a while, until Ryland can learn to be content (or we figure out how to entertain the baby) on long car trips. Ry's endurance usually lasts to Trumansburg so at least we can visit Nana and Papa from time to time!

Crawl

2009-03-03T22:39:00.003-05:00

Have Billions or an iPhone

2009-03-03T07:17:00.007-05:00

If you ever get jealous of the rich, don't. Apparently, Mrs. Bill Gates and their children are forbidden to own iPods or iPhones, made by Microsoft's archrival Apple .

Just think of the poor deprived Gates children, who will have to endure years green with envy, watching their friends in school walking around with the iPods and iPhones that the young Gates can't have!

Ry, you might not be an heir to billions, but you can definitely have all the cool gadgets (that Daddy can't make) when the time comes!

Baby Goods Exchange

2009-03-02T06:56:00.006-05:00

We got a box of baby goodies from Sonja. In the box is this adorable baby sweater Hickory made Clayton a while back, before Ryland was born. The sweater no longer fits Clayton so Ry gets it for now. We'll have to ask Sonja how she washed this sweater. It still looks new and feels very soft after all the use.

We packed up a bunch of newborn kissaluvs and Ry's old outfits. They are on their way to Arizona for Clayton's little brother Leon. We can't wait to meet him when they move back to Ithaca this summer!

And don't let the picture of Ry sleeping peacefully in Hickory's arms as she crocheted deceive you.... The little guy can now move in any direction he wishes. My mother stopped by late Saturday afternoon for a quick visit. She was determined to be the first to witness Ry crawling forward. Despite all the encouragement and numerous toys just beyond his reach, my poor mother only managed to see a stationary and frustrated baby. When I tried the same tricks on Sunday afternoon, Ryland started lifting his butt and dragging his feet forward! Not quite crawling, but he can definitely move forward as he wishes.

Hickory is Smiling

2009-02-21T22:32:00.004-05:00

Because she can knit again!

The rows have to be short though. His attention spans aren't all that long. Plus the poor guy fell over and bonked his head a couple of times tonight :**-(

An Old Man and a Baby

2009-02-21T09:23:00.004-05:00

The other day when I was feeding Ryland his dinner (grounded up carrots and banana mixed with Mommy milk. Yum!), Amos sat right next to Ry's chair in the kitchen, showing great interest in the baby's dinner. Meanwhile Ry kept looking at Amos' water bowl to signal that he wanted water.

And we were worried that they wouldn't get along....

Amos is a 14-year-old grumpy old guy who doesn't like babies and kids. I'm not saying they are (or will ever be) best friends. But the relationship between Ryland and Amos is definitely looking up!

Simple Things Made Complicated

2009-02-20T21:40:00.007-05:00

A few months before Ryland arrived, we splurged a little and bought a barely broken-in 2005 Volvo V70 station wagon. (Actually I splurged. I wanted one of these go-anywhere haul-anything vehicle my parents had. It helped me feel "parental," I guess). Yesterday I stopped by AutoZone and got a couple of wiper blades since I noticed the current ones were pretty worn.

When I took off the old blades at home, I noticed they looked nothing like the standard blades. Instead of the familiar J-shaped connector, these have nifty rubber snaps holding the blades to the wiper arms. U-oh.

This morning I gave up and drove the car down to Ithaca Foreign Car Service. If you have never been to Ithaca, this city probably has the highest number of Volvos per capita in the world, including anywhere in Volvo's home country of Sweden. And Ithaca Foreign Car Service has made its fortunes and reputation keeping thousands and thousands of Volvos of various vintage on the Ithaca's streets since the dawn of time. They are good.

"Do you know the 2005 V70's have non-standard wiper blades?" I asked the guy at the front desk.

"Yup. That's because they want to charge you twice as much," he smiled as he handed me a pair of Volvo factory blades, clearly marked "V70/XC70 05-08". I handed over the credit card. Yup, they cost almost twice to the penny of the $25-pair of RainX no-so-shabby blades I got from AutoZone the day before. Ouch.

I went outside, removed the old blades, took the new ones out of the box, and... Wait. The connectors on the brand spanking new blades still looked nothing like the old ones. After struggling for a couple of minutes, the front desk guy came out and asked, "do you need any help?"

I felt a little silly and handed over the blades. I thought the saying, "changing the wiper blades," meant a trivial task.

The guy couldn't figure it out either. He had to go back to get a technician to help us. The technician said when they first got these new "improved" blades late last year, he had to call the dealer for instructions on how to get them on.

So how many Ithacans does it take to change wiper blades on a 2005 Volvo? Apparently 3.

Happy Valentines Day

2009-02-15T22:11:00.004-05:00

Hickory and I were simply whipped this weekend. The exhaustion of parenthood finally caught up with us. We bowed out of both social events, and had no energy left to go anywhere on Valentines Day, you know, to warn all the dreamy eye couples crazy in love of the dangers joys of romance....

Today the sky was blue and the sun came out for the first time since the winter started. We took a relaxing stroll in the woods, and finally recovered enough to make a movie to share with you:

Keeping In Sync with Google Sync

2009-02-10T12:51:00.002-05:00

With my work schedule, Hickory's yarn shop, the baby, and our social events, scheduling is a tricky business. Since Hickory and I don't usually get a chance to sit down and talk until dinner time or after every day, it's way too easy to schedule ourselves into conflicts until it is too late. To minimize the problem, we have been using a couple of cool gadgets to keep our schedules straight.

In addition to our computers, we each have an iPod Touch. The iPod Touch is more or less an iPhone without the phone features. We would love to have a couple of iPhones, but then there wouldn't be any money left for Ryland's diapers after paying the astronomical monthly service fee (times 2, one of each iPhone).

Hickory and I share 5 Google Calendars: one for Hickory's appointments, one for mine, a family calendar with events requiring everyone's attendance, one for the yarn shop's announced events (published on the yarn shop's web site), and a planning calendar containing the shop's events not ready to be announced yet. Then we use a cool program called SpanningSync to synchronize the shared Google Calendars onto our computers. From there, we use Apple's MobileMe service to sync the calendars onto our iPods.
This hodgepodge of technology definitely has its limitations. Depending on where a new appointment is entered, it can take some time for the appointment to show up on all 4 devices. For example, if I enter something into my iPod, the change could take a few hours to make 6 hops of calendar synchronization to appear on Hickory's iPod, because wireless Internet connection is not always available to the iPods, and our computers are not on all the time.

Well, that is until yesterday. Google announced Google Sync, which can synchronize Google calendars and address books with a wide selection of computers and mobile devices. Now we can configure our iPods to synchronize directly with Google like this:
From now on Hickory and I can "sync up" with each other whenever our iPods come in range of a wireless Internet connection. So if we are late or miss an appointment next time, we'll need to come up with some new excuses....

New Developments in a Hectic Week

2009-02-09T20:27:00.010-05:00

The recent lack of updates can be attributed to one hectic week. After the recent cold spell, Ithacans came out of their winter hibernation in droves searching for new knitting supplies. Given the sad state of our economy, the sudden surge of business at the yarn shop in late January and early February is welcomed... except we are temporarily short staffed. Last Thursday evening after work I had to drive to Geneseo to call in additional troops (or Elly, our one-woman army, who is attending college there) to help us out over the weekend.

Meanwhile, baby development waits for no one. Ry is suffering from the discomfort of teething and wants to bite everything in sight. At the same time, he has really discovered his voice and started to speak up in earnest. It's really neat when he sings along the music playing on the stereo, not so when he expresses his displeasure at 3 am.

Tonight when I was washing his hair in our bath, Ry turned around to face me (yes, he turns around freely in the tub) and started to take interest in body parts.... U-oh, not good. I quickly deployed a row of yellow floating rubber ducky bath toys to defend Daddy distract him long enough for me to rinse him off and get him out of the tub. Tomorrow is gonna be interesting.

Well, here is a photo I can share. Ryland and Mommy spent an afternoon visiting the O'Briens today. He fell asleep on the car ride home. Can't you tell he had a blast playing with Nana today?

Tough Mornings

2009-02-03T12:18:00.002-05:00

I've never been a morning person. It's always tough dragging myself out of bed every day, going through an hour or so of morning routines, and hauling myself out of the door to work. I actually like my job so I'm fine once I get to the office.

But scenes like this really challenge my resolve to get to work.... Who can resist the temptations to crawl right back into bed with them?

Last night's bath was very different. For the first time, Ry could sit up in the tub by himself without my support. He just sat there playing with his bath toys, making splashes, and didn't want to come out. Eventually the water got cold and I had to grab him out of the tub. I took some photos of his pruney toes as Ry rolled and fussed after getting dressed. He is about to get mobile any day now so his baby feet will not stay this chubby for much longer.

Photos from Laurel

2009-01-31T10:08:00.004-05:00

From January 2009

Laurel sent along a couple of recent photos she took of Elly giving Ry a drink. I have no idea which day the girls came to play with the baby.

From January 2009

Anyway, I'm proud to say: our Christmas tree came down this past week. That's 2 months earlier than last year! (Hickory likes to keep a plastic green "tree" in the house until the trees outside start to turn green).

Blogging One-handed

2009-01-30T19:55:00.001-05:00

Babies train their parents performing many daily tasks one-handed. As soon as we feel confident enough holding the baby one-hand, we start with simple things like folding the laundry and loading the dish washer with the other. Then we progress onto trickier routines like peeing one-handed...without making a mess, of course. Otherwise we'd be cleaning the toilet one-handed.

Thanks to the technological wonder called the iPod Touch (Think of an iPhone without the phone, the built-in camera, and the astronomical monthly AT&T service charges), Hickory and I have been e-mailing one-handed for quite a while now.

This entry marks another milestone: I just downloaded a handy little program for the iPod. Now I can blog one-handed :-)

Baby news of the day: Nancy said Ryland, wearing the wool pants I knitted, managed to crawl forward on the rug with the increased friction from the pants. We'll try to catch him in the act on camera for you all to see.

Things We've Discovered as New Parents

2009-01-25T12:53:00.002-05:00

We now beg for a chance to do things that we used to find the lamest excuses to procrastinate....

A Future Scholar (or Just Getting a Bad Habit?)

2009-01-23T07:33:00.008-05:00

Ry's becoming quite a scholar of dinosaurs, isn't he? Well, if we zoom out from the shot a little bit, you can see where he was reading... on the changing table while getting his diaper changed!

Somehow I'm not surprised. He has the genes. I know one of his parents has read through the Lord of the Rings trilogy at least once while on the potty.

Private Zoo

2009-01-20T12:39:00.003-05:00

When I walked into the kitchen last Saturday morning, I saw this through the sliding glass doors:

(If you haven't been to our house, these deer are literally feet away from the door. You can see the back of one of our patio chairs in the lower right corner)

The herd just hung out on our stone patio, chomping down on the rhododendron shrub. Nancy walked in and must have seen me dumbfounded by the scene.

"Oh, they've been coming over every day for quite a while now. Ryland loves to sit in his little chair and watch them," she explained.

I was going to let Amos out to defend the shrub, but I didn't have the heart to close down Ry's private zoo.

We Miss You, too, Lynda!

2009-01-14T21:25:00.007-05:00

We first met Lynda at the yarn shop, but over the years she has become a good personal friend and the knitter-in-residence at Knitting Etc. After the New Years Lynda went on a sabbatical leave from her cushy job as an English professor and moved to Massachusetts to be closer to her family. Before she left, Lynda asked me to keep up with the blog.

"I'll look forward to reading it every day," Lynda promised.

Just as a blog offers readers insights to the writer's (sometimes private) life, Google Analytics can tell a blogger about his readers: After inserting a few lines of code in my blog, Google does its black magic and tells me how many people are reading this blog each day and their best guess at where the readers are located. You know. Make sure people out there are reading this and I am not wearing out my keyboard for nothing. The data are anonymized and cannot be cross referenced so I can't really identify individual readers.

But, starting in early January, a lone loyal reader popped up in Massachusetts, visiting the blog daily.
I can see where you are, Lynda! We miss you, too. The yarn shop is not quite the same without our knitter-in-residence. Plus, Hickory and I are so envious by your sabbatical life with Walden and Thoreau, reading, knitting, and writing every day in your little rented cabin in the woods! (Did those guys knit back then?)

When the Baby is More Famous Than His Old Man....

2009-01-11T09:19:00.009-05:00

When my sister Amy came to visit us over Christmas, I took her to Jillian's Drawers, a baby supplies store near the Commons, to get some baby goods for her baby. When we were looking at their selections of baby carriers, another woman shopping there walked up to me, "this is Ryland, right? Awww... he is sleeping and he looks so big!" She cooed over Ry, who had fallen sound asleep in the ergo carrier that I use to carry him around.

The thing was: I had no idea who the woman was! After about 30 seconds, she turned to me: "You must be Steven! Hi, I am Rachel." Rachel was very nice. She introduced herself. It turned out she and Hickory had spent an afternoon making Apple sauce at the O'Briens house this fall.

I was just a little surprised: Ry was not even 7 months old but he was already more famous than his old man! Then I felt stalked. I looked around and wondered who else recognized me from my 6-month-old son.

On Saturday I worked at the yarn shop so Hickory could attend a local "ROC Day" fiber fest. Throughout the day women (some I knew and some I had never met) walked into the shop from the festival and started telling me they just saw my baby and how cute he was.

Hickory owns a business and has been in Ithaca for a lot longer than I have. Over the years I am used to the idea of being known as "Hickory's husband." I guess I better quickly add "Ryland's dad" to the list of my identities.

Rolling

2009-01-07T07:17:00.004-05:00

At almost 7 months, Ryland knows one method of mobility: rolling. He hates getting dressed. When I try to dress him in our bed after his daily bath, Ry would do his darnest rolling himself away from me. Obviously, he can't get very far before Daddy catches up with him.

Well, today's Washington Post gave all the parents of baby boys a little preview of what we will be up against: a 6-year-old boy attempted to drive himself in a Ford Taurus to school after missing the bus (and almost made it!)

Hey, it could have been worse: at least he was determined to get to school, instead of getting away from it.

I Love Squash

2009-01-03T14:24:00.005-05:00

"Can I have more?"

After our holiday guests departed on New Years Eve and New Years Day, our life slowly returned to "normal." Nancy came to watch Ryland on New Years Day as Hickory and I and the crew counted inventory at the yarn shop. This is our third time doing inventory and we've got the system down pretty well. Everything came off the shelves, got counted, and put back onto the shelves in 5 hours flat. Pretty impressive, I thought.

Yesterday Ry had his slightly delayed 6-month checkup at the doctor's office:

Ryland weighed 18 lbs 4 oz. Hickory was a little relieved: "He is now growing an ounce a week instead of a pound a week like before!" I think our arm and back muscles were having a hard time keeping up with his frantic growth.
After peeing twice (once on the scale, once when the doc was checking him over), the doctor said he's doing well. But the poor baby got a few required shots and he's been grumpy all day today. But hey, I learned to blog and write a few New Years cards one handed while holding a baby....

To Top It All Off

2008-12-29T23:05:00.005-05:00

Everyone, except for Hickory & Ryland (the superwoman and wonder baby. I still don't know how they escaped the carnage), got very sick within 48 hours after Christmas....

Most of us are still recovering, but we won't show you the sick pictures:

Our Holidays So Far

2008-12-26T12:06:00.005-05:00

The guests got delayed and then stuck in Detroit on Christmas Eve.
Northwest Airlines are still looking for 2 lost bags.
Amos ate a bag of pure chocolate. He and I spent a good part of the evening on Christmas Day at Cornell Vet Hospital emergency room.

But this picture makes it all good:

Ryland's Early Christmas

2008-12-23T09:44:00.003-05:00

From these pictures you can't tell Christmas is still a couple of days away. Thanks to our friend Shanna, Ry has been getting a bunch of hand-me-down toys from Iona and he is having a blast with them.

That Old Dog

2008-12-23T09:01:00.003-05:00

"How old is your dog?" We often get asked this question.

"We don't know. Old." We can only shrug and add to the mystery.

Amos was a pound dog and had half a dozen owners (that we know) before us. His gray coat only adds to his "old dog" look. From talking to some of his previous people and the vet, the best guess we have: Amos is at least 14 to 15 years old.

Last summer Hickory and I noticed a big lump near his hind legs. When Hickory took him to the vet, the result from a quick biopsy was inconclusive. The vet suggested that we should consider what we would do about the results if a full biopsy were performed.

Hickory and I have talked about the possibilities. But we kept putting off the test. I guess we both wanted the possibilities to remain just possibilities.

Meanwhile, as Amos got slower on his walks over the summer and fall, we wondered if that's from his old age or something else. Amos mopes around the house more. Is that because he is not happy about the new competition for attention from his people, or something else?

Yesterday Hickory finally broke down and took him to the vet. $354 later, the vet gave him a clean bill of health, other than that big lump of fatty tissues! It looks like the old dog will be around begging and racking up vet bills for quite a bit longer.

Sitting Up!

2008-12-21T20:21:00.005-05:00

Here's the proof:

Shall we start a pool on when he makes the first crawl?

Happy Birthday Mommy!

2008-12-17T21:01:00.006-05:00

Hickory turned 32 today. I got fillings for a couple of cavities at the dentist's and worked (drooped) from home for the rest of the day. Elly and Nancy showed up around noon.... with the same crock pot for her birthday that I had ordered for Hickory's Christmas present! Ouch! I guess Hickory made her wish so well known that both Nancy and I got her the same thing. Naturally the UPS guy delivered the package containing my crock pot later in the afternoon. (Note to self: next year I should really shop locally instead of on-line. This will be the third present I've had to ship back in the past month).

Kim came later to clean the house. But Ry was super excited to see a houseful of people entertaining him. When I emerged from my office after my work day, everyone was sitting around the baby and no one was getting much done. This is why it's so hard for Hickory and I to get anything done these days. Who could resist this cute face when he is playful?

They are both going after something....

And Ryland won!

So this year our Christmas cards never left the door, everyone is (hopefully) getting a Happy New Year card from us, Knitting Etc's December newsletter is quickly turning into a January issue (It will be out this weekend!), and poor Hickory for the first time since we've met is getting only one birthday present from me (Ask her how to get multiple presents for every occasion from the person who adores you. She should write a book on that!).

Six Months and We Are Still (Barely) Here!

2008-12-13T21:03:00.006-05:00

Wow! One week gap since the last entry! This is bad. With preparing for Christmas and the shop entering its insanely busy season, Hickory and I were pretty overwhelmed in last week. Today Nancy came to our rescue! She drove in to watch Ry for an extra day so Hickory could work at the shop and I could do some errands. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Nancy!

Ry is six months old today. He celebrated his six months by reminding us what a good baby he had become: last week Ry reverted back to his good old days when he woke up at night every 2 hours like clockwork to eat.

Yes, Ry. I know you've come a long way (and here are some pictures to prove it). I know you can sleep through most of the night. Be a good boy and have mercy on your mommy!

Two Weeks

Six Months

Challenges of Baby Modeling

2008-12-06T21:30:00.008-05:00

Since Hickory owns a yarn shop, over the years we both got used to seeing in knitting books, magazines, and patterns some incredibly cute baby photos like this one:
A couple of weeks ago when I was at the yarn shop, Jessica asked: "Can Ryland model my red fair isle sweater? I need a photo to put on Ravlery. The sweater still fits him, right?"

I picked up the sweater Jessica had designed and knitted, gave it a good look, and nodded: "Yup. I'm sure it fits him. Not a problem. I'll e-mail you the photo when I have it."

I brought Jessica's sweater home. Before I could snap some photos, Ryland got a cold. I was pretty sure Jessica didn't want her sweater to be associated with a sick baby. I waited.

This morning after Hickory left for work, the baby was smiling and the sun was shining (or much as it could in Ithaca's December). I thought: "What a perfect time for a photo session!" I grabbed the sweater and Ry and headed for the big comfy chair by the living room window.

The results weren't quite what I had expected:

"The sweater is a little tight, don't cha think?"

"The inside fair isle strand is rubbing and tickling me!"

After more than a dozen shots, I just couldn't get the baby to smile or the sweater not to bunch up in tight places. Ry eventually got really annoyed and declared the end of photo session.

Sorry, Jessica!

Wabbit Food!

2008-12-04T19:11:00.004-05:00

Ry learned to eat carrots this week while the parents learned how fast carrots could make through baby's system (just a few short hours)....

"Yum!"

Organization

2008-11-30T11:17:00.010-05:00

Having a baby does not exactly help keeping the house organized. Over the past few months, Ryland has started leaving his own footprint around our home:
At least almost all of his stuff are soft and squishy. Unlike a random knitting needle on the couch, Ryland's stuff don't cause pain when someone accidentally sits on them. As you might have guessed, we have lots and lots of knitting needles lurking around the most unlikely spots in the house, waiting for the next victim to surprise!

Last week while shopping at Home Depot, a brilliant idea for taming the knitting needle problem came to me. I looked up and down the isles but eventually found the perfect solution at Wal-Mart:
The storage drawers come in a rack of five, but the top can be removed to attach with another. Stacking 3 racks with 15 drawers works great (Note to knitters: because there are no sizes 12, 14 and 16 needles, plus an extra drawer for size 10.5. 15 drawers would hold sizes 0 to 17 circular and double-pointed needles beautifully). Total cost: $24.

Before anyone complains: "Where's the baby photo in this entry?" I thought I'd better share this before signing off. Ry had a taste of "real food" this week:

Thanksgiving

2008-11-26T12:29:00.004-05:00

We're spending Ryland's first Thanksgiving at the O'Briens. Nancy said: "Now I am a grandma so we can spend Thanksgiving at my house!" That's just fine with us! I'm particularly looking forward to Laurel's pies.... Laurel used to bake for Cafe DeWitt in Downtown Ithaca and she makes really good pies!

And this Thanksgiving, I am very thankful for this:

Need I say more? I'm very looking forward to this Thanksgiving and Christmas. Both of my sisters will be here for Christmas. Ryland will get to meet his cousin Sarah for the first time. Baby meets baby in a house full of people. That ought to be fun! All this extra excitement is actually making Hickory and I more organized this year. We've started getting ready for Christmas: Hickory asked the question that she has to ask every year: "Can we get a real tree this year?" And I gave the same answer as I always have: "Not if you want to keep the tree up until March." (For the record, we've been choosing the "put up the plastic tree until March" option). The "don't open the package you didn't order" house rule is also in effect as Christmas presents should be rolling in any day now! Oh yeah. I'm also looking forward to a couple of days off over Thanksgiving to knit the Christmas presents on my list.

First Cold

2008-11-23T12:27:00.015-05:00

We knew this would happen sooner or later: Ryland caught his very first cold this week. Besides visiting the doctor's office, Hickory and I became very familiar with these few necessities. The funny looking tool was named the "snot sucker" by Hickory. You can imagine its use from the name. However, Ry considers it an instrument of extreme torture: He got so angry and screamed so loud after we used it on him that I had to try it on myself.... I didn't see what the big deal was. It just tickled a lot.

Sorry if I've grossed anyone out. Hey, that's part of the fun: I can be as gross as I want, all in the name of good parenting!

We had planned to start giving him real food this week, but the cold put a damper on things. We gave him a carrot to chew on to help with teething, and the dog happily accepted the leftover from the baby. I see the very beginning of a beautiful friendship!

Still, between the fussing, crying, and screaming, Hickory managed to catch a cute moment on camera:

Ry doesn't look very sick, does he?

Scrabble!

2008-11-16T22:21:00.006-05:00

On Saturday night Hickory and I introduced Ryland to one of our favorite games, Scrabble! I tried to explain the rule to Ryland: "when it's Mommy's turn to hold Ryland, peek at Mommy's tiles. When you come back, whisper all the letters on Mommy's tiles in Daddy's ears!"

Unfortunately, he didn't quite get it. I think the game is a little slow for babies. Eventually Ry fell asleep.

The important thing was: Ry behaved so well that we were actually able to finish a game. And Daddy kicked Mommy's butt even without Ry's help!

Getting Caught with Pants Down

2008-11-15T11:56:00.009-05:00

On his five-month birthday, Ry graduated to the big bathtub because he no longer fits in the little plastic baby tub. The big tub holds a lot more water and... wild life! We were having so much fun catching the duckies in the pond we didn't even notice Mommy came in with the camera....

Ry and I got caught with our pants down!

And the next day, when I came in to use the bathroom, I discovered we forgot to rescue the duckies before draining the tub:

Gotta teach them the importance of wild life conservation when they are young!

Five for Him, Thirty Five for Me

2008-11-13T12:48:00.008-05:00

Ry is five months old today, the same day I turned thirty five years old. Yup, there is no denying it now. I'm officially in my mid-thirties, and a dad.

I'm definitely not as thrilled to be in my mid-thirties as I am a dad. I remember all the anticipation and expectations of Ryland's birth from an e-mail I wrote Hickory before he got here:

On the long flight from LA to Taipei, I finished both sleeves of the sweater for our son. Our son, Hickory. The concept is so strange, exciting, and scary all at the same time. As I worked on the sleeves, I couldn't stop imagining what this little guy's gonna be like and how he and I will get along. Yes, I did get a few strange looks from others watching a grown man knitting away, and a few questions from this old Indian woman in the next seat who knits everything in the flat and had never seen circular needles. But mostly I thought about our son....

So did the last five months live up to my expectations? Well, I got less sleep and even less personal time to take care of "stuff" than I thought I would in the last few months. My temper got worse (I'm so sorry Hickory!) from the new stress. But really, Ry is an angel even on his worst days (Remember that week we spent in the hospital after his birth?) What really exceeded my expectations is the support we've received from everyone, especially the O'Briens. They come in and out of the house so often now that Amos greets them as one of "us." I really don't know how other new parents survive the first few months without help from family and friends. Now when I get home from work, the grumpy old dog pokes his head out from the kitchen door on top of the stairs. I know when I get to the top, around the corner, I would be greeted by Amos' wagging tail, begging for dinner, and a smiling baby, suddenly remembering I exist in this world. If this is how being in the mid-thirties and a dad are, life ain't bad.

I've been watching Ry growing bigger and looking less like an infant by the day. Ry is starting to develop his personality, likes, and dislikes. Our relationship as father and son will become more apparent each day. As I ponder the "how he and I will get along" question, I can't help but looking back to the relationship between my own father and myself: I had never gotten along with my father since early teenage years until his passing last March. My father and I each had our own faults and made many mistakes in our long history of contention. As much as I endeavor to be a very different kind of father to Ryland, I question if my efforts will be good enough.

Yes, this blog is part therapy for me in addition to being a record of my stumbling through fatherhood. I hope as Ryland and I celebrate this day together every year, I will know I'm still on the right track!

Rolled Over

2008-11-09T22:58:00.004-05:00

Ryland rolled over this evening twice. The problem is he would only do it in secret. Hickory and I were working in her craft room/my office and left Ryland on his belly in his crib. Next time we turned around, he was grinning on his back.

We turned him over onto his belly and watched. Ryland just wouldn't do it, regardless how we encouraged him on. We gave up and went about our business.

Next time we turned around, he was grinning on his back again!

So no photo or video until we mount a babycam on the crib to catch him in the act....

Baby Secrets

2008-11-08T21:27:00.003-05:00

This morning after Mommy left for work, the boys went back to bed for a late Saturday morning nap. After we woke up, the baby and I sat by the big window in the living room listening to the old dog snoring on the rug. Ry whispered his secrets in my ear....

I wish every day was a Saturday.

Election Night

2008-11-05T12:12:00.010-05:00

Like most Americans, we spent most of last night by our TVs, radios, or computers waiting for the election results. The baby had no idea that history was being made.... so we had to come up with some entertainment while the talking heads talked on the radio between the results from each state.

I knew eventually Americans would see the errors of our ways in the last 8 years and the pendulum would swing back the other way. Everything was a little unreal when it finally happened last night. I knew it was all over when they called Ohio for Obama at 9:30. We stayed up until 11 pm when they finally gave the West Coast to Obama to put him over 270. Just to make sure.

Even this morning, when I handed Ry back to Hickory before leaving for work, she could barely open her sleepy eyes to take the baby. Hickory, half-asleep, had to ask one more time: "I just want to double check: who's our president?"

I didn't have the heart to tell her the truth:

George W. Bush!

Baby Gimmicks

2008-11-03T21:46:00.017-05:00

Hickory and I sank to a new low today. We actually used Baby Ryland to sell yarn....

From: "Hickory Lee"
To: "Knitting Etc Mailing List"
Subject: [Knitting Etc News] Happy Hour & Sale This Friday

Hi Knitters,

This is Steven. I ran into Meredith (last name intentionally left out to protect the innocent) while shopping at Target on Saturday. After inquiring how we are doing, she asked, "oh, is the baby going to be at the next Happy Hour?"

"Yup"

"Great. I'll definitely try to stop by after work then."

So, if free knitting time and a Berroco sale can't get you out of the house, perhaps Baby Ryland can. Since we have no babysitter on late Friday afternoon, he will be making frequent appearance at the monthly Happy Hour!

Anyway.....

Ryland definitely has his own fan club at the shop. And we are taking full advantage of it! (Someone has to pay for his diapers somehow....)

Last night when we were hanging out in bed, Ryland almost rolled over. Hickory and I encouraged him on and watched him making more than half turn, but not yet.... He is getting so big now, especially when I flipped back to see the older entries. At least he still sleeps the same way: arms stretched out. Sometimes he takes up more room in bed than either of his parents!

Baby Talk

2008-10-31T07:38:00.000-04:00

This is what happens when the baby decides not to sleep in the middle of the night....

Hickory, who captured this video with her sleepy eyes barely open, tried to record another one in better light. She said: "he wouldn't make a sound after I turned the lights on, no matter what I did!"

How Did You Get So Tall?

2008-10-28T12:45:00.004-04:00

Hickory took Ry to the doctor yesterday. The poor guy got 2 more shots and slept for most of yesterday evening and last night. Instead of showing you a baby that just got his shots, I'll put up a photo from my mother's visit last week.

The doc confirmed what we had been suspecting from the piles of outgrown clothes and diapers: Ry now weighs 16 lbs 13 oz and his height puts him in the 95th percentile of his age group. When we went shopping for his clothes last Saturday, Hickory and I were buying "12-to-18 month" sizes!

My question for Ryland is: with two shorty parents, how did you get so tall?

The Best Baby Photo for the Office is.... a Live Baby!

2008-10-26T11:43:00.004-04:00

After feeding Ry this morning, I put the baby in the Ergo and went down to my home office to catch up with the mountains of paper work. I played Raffi music in iTunes for Ry and started typing away on the computer.

When I realized Ry was being awfully quiet, I looked down and saw this. Since I can't make every morning a Sunday morning, maybe I'll bring him to work during the week. Complete with whispering baby snores, this is so much better than any baby photo I can have in the office!

Ancient History

2008-10-23T12:35:00.007-04:00

It seems like a million years ago. Hickory and I have been married for four years today. I have to try very hard recalling what life was like before meeting Hickory again on the weekend after I moved back to Ithaca five and half years ago. That's because I so seldom think about my pre-Hickory days.... Looking back they seem so dull and irrelevant. In the past few years, I have met an endless stream of amazing people through Hickory and enjoyed a life of constant (mostly wonderful) surprises.

About this time last year, I thought I had finally learned to expect the unexpected after celebrating our third anniversary. I got a phone call from Hickory in the car on my way to work. She still managed, with three short words, to make me almost shift the car in reverse.