Signing Time

Ah, the Signing Time videos. They are terrible. And amazing. Evi loves them, but the adults are all a bit scared of the host, Rachel, who is, well...scary. But Evi loves these videos which we let her watch a few times a week. She is getting really good at signing and has added about one sign a day for the last week! Here is her list (ooh, a list!) of current signs:

1. food (this is her favorite)
2. more (2nd favorite..she was signing "more food" in her sleep the other night)
3. cracker (we are seeing a trend)
4. banana
5. dog
6. bath
7. baby
8. fan
9. water
10. milk
11. Daddy
12. Grandma
13. book
14. tree

Slap!

Every once in a while Evi has a bad night. She will usually go right back to sleep in the middle of the night with a little bit of milk and a soothing butt-pat. Not this night. She was fussy and wiggly and frustrating! Luckily we have a great baby carrier that serves to soothe the wild beasty. I wrestled it on in the dark, in my sleep-deprived state, then proceeded to wrestle Evi into it as well. Success! She calmed down immediately, snuggled her head onto my chest and fell asleep. The (very slow) time ticked away and I was thinking I might be able to take her out and put her in her crib. At almost this exact moment, Evi suddenly pushed herself away from me, looked me in the eye, swung her hand back and SLAPPED me across the face! WTF?! She immediately snuggled right back up to me and fell back to sleep.

End of Trip, Beginning of New Chapter

So, we are sorely behind in our blogging. To recap:

1) We finished our trip by driving from Bloomington to Oak Ridge, TN to visit Dan's Uncle Mike and family. Many games were played, cliffs were jumped off of (into deep, refreshing lake waters--after which muscles were sore), great meals were eaten, three cousins were seen one of whom just graduated from high school and just went off to the US Air Force academy, more games were played, waters were skiied and wakeboarded, more games were played. Awesome.

2) Then we flew to Austin, TX to see Dan's sister Gayle. It was like an oven down there...over a hundred degrees every day we were there. I (Dan) played as a sub for Gayle's softball team as the DH (so I "warmed" the bench when the team was out on the field, but since it was so hot, I was probably more of a "bench cooler" than a "bench warmer") and went 2-2 and scored a run. Evi maintained a cool acquaintance with Gayle's cat Peaches, neither were really sure what to do with the other. Many games were played here too. Katie and I had never been to TX, outside the airports, so it was neat to explore downtown Austin (heard a free concert in the park one night) and drove down to San Antonio to see the Alamo and the River Walk. Very fun.

3) We flew back to Portland, OR and stayed with Dan's parents for awhile before we found a wonderful house to rent in north Vancouver, WA. It has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms (one for me, one for Bird, and, since Evi is so small, a 1/2 bath for her), a small but nice yard and...we are paying the SAME RENT as our dinky Brooklyn apartment! Love it. Although we hated the whole time-consuming process of unpacking of boxes and moving of incredibly heavy furniture bit. I am slowly mastering the manly art of outdoor grilling, which was sorely neglected in the concrete jungle of NYC. Yum. I am also loving all the readily available, super tasty microbrews from here in the PNW. I do miss me my Brooklyn Lager, though. Katie starts her new job at the clinic soon, and I will be working on my dissertation. It is great to have family (my parents, Katie's Dad and sister, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, etc.) close by. We are very happy.

4) Lastly, since we no longer live in Brooklyn, I restyled the look of the blog as you will plainly notice. Brooklyn Blogger is dead, Long live Dan and Bird's Pacific Northwest Journal!

We have already posted many pictures and videos of our trip at flickr, and will be catching up even more in the coming days, including pics of our new house, and videos of Evi, who is cutting 3 new teeth in her upper gum! Stay tuned, and, as things fall into normalcy and routine, look for more frequent updates (I hope).

Illinois and Indiana Fun

We're here in Indiana now, after spending some time in Chicago with our friends there. We saw all kinds of cool stuff, like the Institute of Art with all it's famous paintings and sculptures. Evi did great there, happily vocalizing as we meandered through the galleries. I'm not sure how much she enjoyed the art, but lots of the patrons enjoyed interacting with her. We also went to the Shedd Aquarium and Evi was really interested in the fish there. That was such a cool place...so many cool aquatic animals!! Really good food in the food court, too! We also walked all around and saw the Cloud Gate, which most locals call "The Bean" a giant, reflective, curvilinear form. Neat...see our flickr pictures if you want to actually see what I am writing about.

Then we went to Plainfield, IN, a suburb of Indianapolis, where we spend some time with a family of four, whom we knew as a family of three in Brooklyn. Evi was really interested in the doings of the two kids, 5 and 1. The one-year old was "Evi's boyfriend" according to his 5-year old sister. So cute...again, see the pictures at flickr. Now we are in Bloomington, having got a tour of the IU campus from our friend who teaches there. He and his wife have a super cute 2-year old girl, who, again, entertains Evi to no end. We are having a lot of fun just relaxing now and hanging out with friends.

Family next...Dan's uncle and aunt and family in Tennessee and his sister in Austin. Updates from those places. As much fun as this trip is, we are really excited to return to the Pacific Northwest!! Yay!

Sleep Like a Baby

There is a disconnect between the phrase “sleep like a baby” and our actual baby. Unless the original meaning is that babies sleep lightly; fitfully; sporadically. Although I shouldn’t complain, because last night Evi slept for four hours straight! This may be the longest period of consecutive sleep I have gotten in months, although I cannot accurately calculate this, as sleep deprivation makes my already questionable math skills even shakier. And I should mention that in order for me to have gotten this much (!) sleep I had to actually go to bed when Evi did: at 8:15pm. I know, I know! I am an adult! I should have stayed up to get things done, to conquer the growing tower of unfilled boxes and unpacked belongings, to organize like only I can, to eat dinner. None of this was as appealing to me as sleep, though, and so I slept the sweet sleep of exhaustion and I have no shame for the fact that most 80 year olds probably went to bed later than I did.
And what is the deal with this baby, anyway? Why must the conditions be perfect and the stars align in order for her to sleep? She can sleep through a siren on the street but if I brush my teeth her eyes pop open like I crashed cymbals. She is hyper-mobile at all times, going so far as to flip into the air and onto her back, panting like a trained dog when I come in with a bottle. But when she wants to turn onto her belly in order to sleep, she can’t make it over and wails like a banshee unless I give her an assist, pat her back and “shush-shush” like a wild woman. I would write more but I am so tired. So, so tired.

Evi Eats Everything!

Evi has peas in her hair, squash on her arm and applesauce up her nose. Hello, solid foods! The rate of her development is astounding us; she sits up on her own and flails her arms about as if to happily display her new talent. “Watch me, parents!” We are watching, baby…we can hardly take our eyes off of you! She scoots, and the threat of crawling looms dangerously near. She popped her first teeth this week, two of them, which adds a fun new twist to the aforementioned solid foods, as she chomps down on the spoon with each new spoonful…eating takes a while around here these days.

As for the adult-like figures, we are busily (and happily, gleefully, rambunctiously!) packing our apartment in preparation for the much anticipated flee across the country. Oh, didn’t I tell you? We are moving back to the NW! Why? Bird is employed! As a PA! In Vancouver! The job pays money! And benefits! Four weeks of vacation! So many exclamation points! ‘Tis true, though, all of it. We will be packing up our scant (after a purge on Craigslist) belongings on May 27th and making an incredibly zig-zagging return to the NW via Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee and Texas. (Apparently we only know people who live in states that begin with “I’s” and “T’s”)

We will be maintaining our respective e-mail addresses and phone numbers should any of you feel inclined to call for more information. Adios, New York City!

April Update

So it's been a while since we put up a blog post--we've just been so busy reveling in Katie's being a newly minted PA that we haven't had time to do anything else (riiiight). Dan's been playing a bunch of gigs lately, starting with his Easter services and then a run of Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Sorcerer," a lesser-known operetta, and a gig up in Connecticut. He's also preparing for the last push of academic work: final exams coming up very soon (mid-May)! Katie has been busy getting herself a couple of job interviews in the upcoming weeks: you'll hear/read more about this later.

Although we haven't blogged much, we've continued the torrid pace at which we post pictures and short videos to flickr. Go there! View and enjoy!

Evi is getting so much more mobile and energetic in her explorations of her environment. Sometimes she hurts herself a little bit. :-( (Like today she was holding a highlighter pen and slammed her fist into the table, thereby pinching her knuckles between the highlighter and the table--hilarity ensued. No wait....by hilarity, I mean intense bursts of screaming.) We are really enjoying watching her develop from an immobile, relatively non-interactive eat/poop/sleep machine into a delightfully curious and affable little human. What a joy! She's almost ready to start crawling. She gets up on all fours, but isn't quite coordinated enough to move about this way. Also, all the new foods she is trying are keeping her (and us!) entertained. I'm not entirely sure how this works, but, somehow, babies covered in partially chewed food are both disgusting and adorable.

I am a...

Certified Physician Assistant! Although, according to the auto-complete function on my cell phone, I am a...hooker. That's the word it offered when I was rabidly texting friends and family the other day when I found out I had passed the exam. Apparently my phone does not think very highly of me, nor I of it after that little incident. We are barely talking to each other and it's merely a matter of time before the quiet seething turns ugly. I am actively searching for a replacement.

Anyway, this bit of news (the certification, not the prostituting) means I can rejoin the world and be social again! Target, here I come! It also means I have a much better chance of getting a job! With an income! In the NORTHWEST! I can't stop using exclamation points! EEP!

Going Bananas!

A couple of days ago we fed Evi her first non-formula food. I hesitate to call it solid food, because it was a pureed banana, mixed with a little bit of formula. It was pretty "liquidy"--gelatinous at best.

We put a video up on our flickr site.

She didn't really make a funny face or register much surprise when she tasted it. She did put out her hand like she wanted more. We'll have to see if she remains equally unfazed for things like mashed turnip, macerated quince with squash, or liquefied beets.

She also handled the spoon like a champ. She's been fascinated by us whenever we eat--staring at us with an intense, unblinking gaze--so I think she had a pretty solid idea of what a spoon was for. I think she enjoyed being at the table and eating at the same time as Mommy and Daddy. For dessert we gave her formula. Mmmmmm, formula.

After-dinner spit up was somewhat chunkier and more fragrant than usual, but nothing too gross.

We'll keep you posted on our other upcoming food adventures, especially if they yield amusing results.

I am not making this up!

This just in from one of Katie's industry journals which arrived in the mail today. I am not sure what the article was about or why this graphic was in there, but I figured that you, dear Reader, could not go another day without having seen this. Please, please, please read the descriptions next to each one. (I love that the last one feels the need to use ALL CAPS for part of the description.)

You know what? I think you should do something.

Here's what you should do:


Save a copy of the image and refer to it as necessary.



That is all.

Some Random Thoughts

I’ve noticed recently that the New York City sidewalks, like the roadways, have a crown or slant to them. Most sidewalks slope slightly downward to the street to shed rain water to the gutters. I noticed this the other day while pushing Evi in the stroller using only one hand. (The other hand was alternately opening doors, holding said doors open for the stroller, holding a coffee cup, or holding a cell phone to my yapping trap.) I soon noticed that my wrist was getting really tired because I was using the “upwalk” hand to steer and the torque was killing me. That is, I had to pull against the natural inclination of the stroller to angle into the street. By switching hands and using the “downwalk” hand to push against the stroller’s natural inclination to turn, I learned that there is definitely a fine art to the act of stroller pushing. In case the foregoing discussion is confusing, I’ve included a diagram which should hopefully make things clearer. (Click on it for the large size.) If my point remains unclear, you have no option but to go out, have a kid, find a friendly sidewalk, and then one-handedly push the kid around in a stroller for a while.

This led me to another thought, namely that many, many other parents have probably discovered other sundry things about their respective environments (and possibly life in general) after having children. Things that had been shrouded in mystery, or perhaps things not even considered or even remotely imagined. For example, I would have never thought that I might accidentally eat some of my daughter’s spit-up while playing airplane with her. Or that baby formula is one of the foulest tasting substances known to man (after regurgitated baby formula of course!). Or that no matter how fast you are at switching out a dirty diaper, your kid will manage to pee (or poop) on the changing pad (or you) during the brief inter-diaper span—NO MATTER HOW SHORT. (I’ve decided to bring this up with a friend of mine who used to work at NASA and knows all about quantum time-spans.) Or that upon returning from work, an entire crappy day can be completely erased by the sunbeam of your own kid’s smile.

Basically, every parent reinvents the wheel because no matter how many books you have read, shows on TLC you have watched, observations of friends who have become parents, or how much you are told about parenting by well-wishing moms/dads/grandpas/grandmas/aunts/uncles/cousins/friends/neighbors/strangers, it’s a COMPLETELY new thing. I have talked to many people who divide their lives into two periods: BC and AC (before- and after- children). I see now how true this is, and I marvel at just how much more I have to learn and how many more mysteries will be revealed before it’s all said and done. It’s pretty exciting, actually. Now I have to go figure out how to install safety tabs/locks/pads on just about everything in this apartment. After all, Evi will soon be crawling and anything not bolted to the wall or floor will go into her mouth.

P.S. Do I really need to tell you that you should go look at more pictures of our cute kid? Ok, ok: I will. CLICK HERE TO LOOK AT OUR CUTE KID!!

Tantrum!

Well, it arrived. Evi had her first full-blown tantrum today. She had a rough night last night: restless, fussy, and hungry. We took her to church today and she fell asleep in the stroller on the way over, and then she slept right through Mass. It was probably the longest span she had slept for the past 12 hours. We took her to the Botanic Garden and she was pretty happy, but after we got home, she got more and more fussy. We fed her when we thought she was hungry. But she's basically been pretty inconsolable (for her) for the whole evening. Katie and I can team up and make her smile and stop crying for several minutes, but unless she's being totally consumed by entertainment, she starts crying again. We got her to fall asleep for about a half-hour, but she woke up and started crying again.

There are several likely (and less likely) reasons for this: 1) she's finally cutting a tooth--she's been drooling like a rabid dog for weeks, 2) she's got a little hay fever or something--she's just a bit stuffy and the weather warmed up significantly the last few days (like Saturday was almost 70 degrees and toady was in the low 60s), 3) she's confused by Daylight Savings Time, 4) she's decided to stop spoiling us, stop acting like such an angel, and start acting like a real baby for awhile, 5) she's preparing for an audition in which she plays a baby stricken by unrequited love for a teething toy, 6) she has gas...painful gas, 7) she's mad that we won't let her eat cereal and that we keep feeding her this nasty formula again and again and again and...well, you get the idea--and she's NOT GONNA TAKE IT LYING DOWN. But, then again, she has to, because she hasn't learned how to sit up by herself yet.

In any case, we are hoping this is just something that will blow over. But if it's teething, it might take awhile. Good thing we stocked up on bibs, burp cloths, and lots of chewy teething toys (that can be chilled to help numb her gums). We'll keep you posted on the culprit.

In like a Lion

March is here and boy did it snow! About 7 inches here in Brooklyn. This morning was 15 degrees, with a wind chill of -1. That's right: NEGATIVE one. Luckily for us, the nearby Botanic garden has a greenhouse conservatory in which it is 1) warm and 2) many flowers are blooming and 3) it's green all around. It will take several more weeks before the rest of Brooklyn looks similarly.

We are celebrating Evi's 5-month birthday today (March 3) by staying warm at home, and by adding some new pictures and videos to our rapidly growing media trove that documents her life so far.

To match the newness of the month, Evi has learned a new sound--the "burble" which can be seen and heard at the flickr site (click here). It's very cute and often follows bursts of laughter. We were finally able to capture the baby really laughing on video, but the file size is too big to upload to flickr right now, so I am going to take some time and try to edit it down. Basically, Katie is clucking like a chicken and Evi laughs and/or squeals approvingly. Although she's been laughing for about a month, it's been difficult to capture her laughter on video for two reasons: 1) only in the last week has it gotten really easy to get her to laugh and 2) she often gets distracted by the camera and/or person holding the camera and stops laughing. Luckily (or is that "cluckily?"), Katie's chicken impression is so rivetingly hilarious that I could safely film the whole exchange.

So, that's about all for now. Except that Major League Baseball is in full swing Spring Training (pun intended) and the exhibition games are being broadcast in the sports bars around the city, so Dan is thrilled. We'll try to get to a ballgame in the new Yankees and Mets stadiums (or is it stadia?) before we leave NYC (whose date, by the way, is still TBA).

Breaking News!

Breaking news: Evelyn Rose has not one, but two feet! This new development was met with wide-eyed surprise followed by ecstatic squealing and clutching of both the right foot and the newly discovered left foot. The novelty of her find has not worn off and, upon laying on her back, she immediately throws all four limbs into the air and grasps her feet with a maniacal grin on her face. This poses many complications when it comes to changing Evi’s clothing or diapers. According to Evi’s mother, “it’s like prying apart a smiling, upturned turtle. But backwards. What?” Evelyn’s mother is obviously still processing this advanced and shocking developmental progress. We intend to follow this story closely as new information becomes available.

Grab bag

So, even though I'm only four-and-a-half months old, I've been getting requests to blog again in my own words. So I thought I would just share some reflections about my life so far.

Apropos to the title of this blog, I have decided that I REALLY like reaching out and grabbing things. This activity had not occurred to me before about last week, but I have found fun and interesting things happen when I reach out and grab stuff. I pulled Mommy's hair for the first time a few days ago--she made a funny noise. I also try to pull Daddy's hair, but it's pretty short so it's a bit hard to get a hold of, but I do my best. I also grab blankets and toys (like stuffed elephants and plastic rings) and toss them all about.

Another thing I like to do is throw up on things. You probably already knew this from prior blog posts, but I've had to get sneaky. Like, for instance, I'll throw up on my outfit several times to the point where it's pretty slimy and so Mommy and Daddy change me--but I don't let them know that I'm primed and ready with another salvo for my new outfit when they get it all fixed up. It's so great to see their reactions when I soil my nice, dry pants. The funny thing is, I am getting fatter (let's be kind: pleasantly plump) all the time, so there is no cause for alarm at my skill at vomiting. My favorite thing in this department is to wait awhile after eating so that the consistency is more thick and curdled and the smell is more potent. Mommy and Daddy seem to really appreciate this.

I also like dancing. Daddy stands me up and kind of moves my arms around in time with whatever music we are listening to and it makes me smile, or even laugh. I also enjoy watching dancing. Daddy knows I like this and he dances around like a crazy person to make me smile. He hopes that no one ever, ever sees this (besides me and Mommy). I think he is a bit embarrassed by his lack of dancing ability--and of course, that is really what I am laughing at.

I also have a hero. He's a big kid (like 9 months old) who had a video on the internet. You can watch it here. I can only aspire to this level of havoc at this point. I do roll over from front to back and from back to front, but not often and usually not serially. I still tend to stay put, although I am getting more mobile.

Speaking of mobile, my parents cell phones fascinate me. Before you know it, I'll be texting all y'all. Maybe I'll start my own Twitter feed. For those who don't know what Twitter is, see here.

What else can I talk about in my grab bag of Evi-isms? I like to talk...my parents can't really understand what I am saying yet, but I don't let that stop me. I happily babble away making all kinds of cute, adorable sounds. Often while I am sucking on my fingers. My gums are kind of tingly, so I chew on my fingers quite often--they say I might get something called teeth soon. It doesn't bother me at all that my drool tends to overflow my mouth, run over my fingers and slowly drip out onto the blanket or my clothes! It's like vomit-lite(TM).

I've also discovered that it's much more restful for me to sleep for long stretches of time, like from 10pm to 6am. I sometimes wake up to eat or get a diaper change, but for the most part, I am sleeping through the night and really liking the results: increased energy during the day, fewer embarrassing narcoleptic episodes when friends are over, and less cranky parents. Who knew they would be so pleasant after they stopped having to wake up every few hours to tend to my every need.

Lastly, I've been practicing my modeling skills. Mommy takes LOTS of pictures of me doing wonderfully winning things. Check out the flickr site to see more. Lots more. Daddy went a little bit crazy uploading pictures and one new video. Sorry about him.

Parenting Haiku

Oh, no. What was that?
Baby vomit in my hair!
And down my back, too.

New Year's Stories

Hello everyone!

Well, here is our belated New Year's blog. We were on vacation for 2 weeks, which was wonderful. The first leg on our journey was to Palm Springs, CA where Dan's maternal grandparents live. It was their 60th wedding anniversary, and the entire 22-person family was there to celebrate. We had a special Mass to celebrate (at which Dan played the music and several other family members sang and played instruments). Katie and I loved this part of the vacation because there were so many willing, eager babysitters including aunts, uncles, and teenage cousins. And the 75 degree heat sure beat snowy, icy, NYC); we got in a lot of games of cards, board games, chess, you name it; eating; drinking; and just feeling like normal adults for a little bit and not 24-hour baby monitors (not that that job is so bad). A highlight for Dan was going to the Rose Bowl with his brother, Alan, and watching USC trounce Penn St. with 80,000 other football fans.

After Palm Springs, we flew up to Portland, OR to hang out with Katie's family and Dan's various paternal-side relatives. Evi finally met her Papa (Katie's Dad) in person and he inducted her into the family traditions of watching sports (mostly golf) on HDTV (see the pictures link for photo evidence of this). We also went over to the house of Papa's Uncle Shorty, a decorated WWII vet and all-around great story-teller to get a 4-generations of Ponsfords picture (see the above picture). We also drove up to Seattle to see Dan's paternal grandparents, which meant that we got 4-generation photos on each side of the family (double that for Dan--paternal and maternal sides). That's pretty special.

Katie also had an agenda of types of food to eat, including Mexican (which seems to taste slightly different in the NW...maybe it's the water?) and non-NYC-syle pizza. Katie just really dislikes the ultra-thin crust of most true NY pizzas (I, on the other hand, LOVE LOVE LOVE NY pizza). Dan's goal was to drink as much local beer as possible, the kind you can't seem to find most places in NYC...can you say Henry Weinhard and Alaskan Amber? :) And eat local sea-food. Steamed Pacific mussels in vermouth sauce, baby!

Dan's parents threw a generous, festive open house to which many family friends came to say hi. Some of our friends have got married since we last saw them, or had babies, so it was a great time to catch up with all these wonderful people.

Now we're back in slushy, cold NYC. Back to the grind. Dan is teaching, though not as much because he quit at Hofstra to spend more time helping out at home. And Katie is looking for PA jobs and studying for her PA certification exam. The management of our building is upgrading the electrical wiring (I think it's STILL from the 1920s) so there is dust and crap everywhere: in the hallways, the lobby, and our own apartment, whose walls were punctured recently to install a new fuse box and thread new wires through several other newly-hewed holes. But we've had visits from some friends since returning to the city, which has been nice. Dan's been playing gigs again (after taking some time off after Evi was born), lately in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center and at Brooklyn's Bargemusic this coming weekend, both relatively well-known venues back here.

We're looking forward to warmer weather when we can take Evi to the nearby Botanic Garden for morning walks and work off some of the excesses of the holidays. One of our New Year's resolutions is to blog more frequently, so check back soon!

PS I guess I forgot to remind everyone to check out all the new pictures at flickr (which we actually have been updating much more regularly than the blog).