Snow Days, Cooking, and Cribs

Today is a snow day. In most places it really wouldn't qualify, but here you put together bad roads, NJ drivers, commuting students and faculty, and hill after hill and it was probably a good idea. I planned an alternate activity for one class, since we're being encouraged to do this now. When did colleges begin doing make-up days? Now we're supposed to move the class on-line, using narrated powerpoints or an alternate activity.

I've been cooking a lot lately. Today was chicken soup in a crock pot and yesterday was chili. I think I could be a good functional cook, which might be a nice role for me since I am horrible at cleaning and worse at maintenance. I was thinking about this as I spent about 20 minutes fiddling with the crib we bought. (I gave up on it not long after--hopefully I will return to it tomorrow.) I know this is the sort of thing most men live for: assemble the baby's first crib! And yet I really was not enjoying the experience much. I am non-macho on almost every scale. I watch about 15 minutes of sports a year and have almost zero interest in putting things together. I liked computers--but only if they are fairly user friendly. Hmmm...

Tomorrow I have no classes so at long last I am getting a bit of a break-break. I'm using it to up my little publishing projects and get family time in. I think this has the potential to be a truly fine semester. Emily's finishing her library work on Saturday and I'm backing off some old school commitments. I'm teaching fun classes and have pretty good students. I think we'll have a good spring to look forward to, not that the snow isn't pretty.

Samuel is Cruising

Sam is keeping life exciting. He's now 10 months old, has had all of his shots. He's cruising well, with only a couple more efforts at unassisted stepping. He has 4-6 teeth (depending on how you count), and a bit more hair, although it's very fine. He's vocalizing a lot. The main words in his arsenal are "nyai-nyai," "da-da," and assorted grunting. Still, we'll take it!

He's still very good at church and in meetings, and playing by himself.

We now have a crib (not yet set up, in part because we have no directions). We'll let you know how it goes.

Sadly, Em's mom has now returned to OH. We hope the flight went well. The laundry is done, the house is clean, and we are all better rested. The baby is taking longer naps. We're sad to be back to just the three of us but are in better shape all around.

The Baby is My Hobby

I've been thinking for a while that I need a hobby. All of my hobbies are either self-improvement goals: [1] (I will take walks! I will learn to cook!), [2] earlier failed hobbies (I will play the trumpet!), or [3] dressed up ways to do more work (anything electronic, linguistic, or bookish). For the near future I will continue playing with photography, which may actually end up falling into any of the above categories. At some point in the next year I'll create a professional blog (#3), and it sort of goes with the whole new dad experience (#1), but then again it may fall by the wayside (#2).

Part of my camera kit was a telephoto, so I was playing with that yesterday. Here's a cardinal that was on my parents' porch:

Part of the joy of a camera is spousal harassment. Doesn't Emily have beautiful eyes and freckles? (And even when they are giving her husband the "stop taking my picture" look.)

Here is Sam, deep in thought. I like Emily's face in the background. (Unrelated note: while we have been peek-a-booing Sam for a couple of months, he just started peek-a-booing us back. Fun!)

Solid food is tasty!

A good game of giggle belly:

That's pretty much the news from here. I drove home today and am on my own for the next week. I'm very sad to be away from Sam and Em :( However, my goal is to write lots and lots every day, go to meetings, and have things squared away for the new semester. Emily's goal is to pawn the boy off on her family as much as possible and start working on the dissertation. So maybe neither of us really needs to be taking up any new hobbies this year...

Boy with Binky

I'm really enjoying the camera...

More Photos...

are uploaded here.

I am my Father's son

I realized recently that all of my paternal male role models have all carried around big cameras that they love. My aunt shot an album of inner city Baltimore. I've always loved cameras, but never took a class and always felt bad getting a big camera (I have a small history of losing and destroying electronics). Nonetheless, I finally took the jump. I have a smallish-slr and am very excited about it. Here are some recent Sam pictures. I plan to put up a new album on picasa soon.

I like this one of Sam at floor level.

Sam really pulls up well now.

This is his latest development--he is starting to take his hand off of things and practice balancing.