Olivia gets more grown up every day, and she's found her first movie obsession. She liked Cinderella before, but it was an occasional thing. A few weeks ago we Redboxed Tangled and liked it so much that we went and bought it a few days later. Now she wants to watch it all the time, she sings the songs while she plays, and we read her Rapunzel book every night. Today when I got home from work, before I could get out of the car, she ran into the garage with the frying pan from her toy kitchen, ready to fight bad guys. (This equated to gently banging pans together, being careful not to hit fingers.) I had to take her and Carmen to the playground so she could go to her tower and build a fire with sticks she collected. Olivia has been fixated lately on growing tall and she mentions it several times a day. (I think it comes from us telling her that eating her dinner will help her grow.) She makes me stand next to her and then proudly declares that she's almost as tall as me, or comments offhand about how long her legs are getting or how big her feet are getting. She still refuses to nap, but has boundless energy. Later in the day it sometimes gets channeled into some impressive tantrums, but they are energetic. And of course, no update on Olivia would be complete without mentioning that she never stops talking. Ever. She once stopped talking for maybe a minute, no longer than two, at the dinner table a few weeks ago. This is noteworthy enough to blog about. The silence was so unusual that it was a little disconcerting. I almost said "uh huh" out of habit.
Ever since Damon was born, the girls have been stuck to me like a shadow, Carmen especially. If I sit down, she sits on my lap and makes me read her a book. If I lay down, she sits on me and reads a book to herself. If I go to another room, she finds me and drags me where she wants me (usually on the couch to read a book). She's awfully cute, however, and it wouldn't be too bad except that Olivia is nearly as needy as Carmen so I never get time with just one or the other, or by myself. Carmen is steadily improving on her talking, but she is still a mushmouth. At my insistence she's slowly fixing her 'k' and 'g' sounds (she substitutes 't' and 'd' respectively) and we've just recently had some success with words that start with 's' ('star' was 'tar', etc.). If you can understand what she's saying, however, it's obvious she's a clever one. She's learned the words to several songs and often surprises me by how well she knows the books I read to her. She still has a hard-to-describe personality and endearing mannerisms that are uniquely Carmen (she insists on going barefoot at the playground) and is still the only kid that will consistently snuggle with me.
Damon, while cute, is not always the most pleasant baby. He's not colicky or inconsolable or anything, but he's usually not very calm unless he's eating or sleeping or inconveniencing you. At all other times he starts going, "eh eh eh eh eh eh" until one of those conditions is met, otherwise he moves to phase two, which is completely freaking out. Unfortunately for Amber, and to a lesser extent me, this continues through the night, because he apparently can't sleep and poop at the same time, and he poops a lot. We vaguely remember Olivia being kind of like this, but we had a lot more time and energy back then. We're both about ready to trade him in for a six-month-old version, but the hospital doesn't take returns.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Puzzle Board
My sister Heather has a puzzle board and every time I did a puzzle here on our slightly-too-small game-room table I told myself I should make one. Well I finally did. My project for the last couple of weeks has been the creation of this puzzle board.
I bought a sheet of hardwood plywood and some molding and used my recently acquired saw to cut things down to size. Each night I'd make a little progress cutting and filing the molding so the pieces fit together, gluing them on, making holes for the handles, filling holes, staining, and glossing, with lots of trips to Lowe's in between. Amber was a good sport and oohed and aahed at the appropriate times as I showed her my handiwork. Damon was also helpful and got me a week off which allowed me to put on the stain and gloss a couple days ago.
The rest of the plywood sheet made a great train board. You can see the corner of it (and the original color) at the top of this picture. It's a good shot of how shiny and smooth the puzzle board is.
Putting handles on the curved edge provided an interesting challenge, but I was able to solve it with some freehand generic-dremel-tooling. That's also how I made holes in the bottom so the screws wouldn't stick out.
Here it is in action on the floor.
And the whole point of a puzzle board - it's portable! Here it is on the kitchen table.
I made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I learned a lot (and was able to hide most of them) and I think it turned out pretty well. You are all welcome to come do a puzzle with us anytime (as long as you ooh and aah appropriately)!
I bought a sheet of hardwood plywood and some molding and used my recently acquired saw to cut things down to size. Each night I'd make a little progress cutting and filing the molding so the pieces fit together, gluing them on, making holes for the handles, filling holes, staining, and glossing, with lots of trips to Lowe's in between. Amber was a good sport and oohed and aahed at the appropriate times as I showed her my handiwork. Damon was also helpful and got me a week off which allowed me to put on the stain and gloss a couple days ago.
The rest of the plywood sheet made a great train board. You can see the corner of it (and the original color) at the top of this picture. It's a good shot of how shiny and smooth the puzzle board is.
Putting handles on the curved edge provided an interesting challenge, but I was able to solve it with some freehand generic-dremel-tooling. That's also how I made holes in the bottom so the screws wouldn't stick out.
Here it is in action on the floor.
And the whole point of a puzzle board - it's portable! Here it is on the kitchen table.
I made plenty of mistakes along the way, but I learned a lot (and was able to hide most of them) and I think it turned out pretty well. You are all welcome to come do a puzzle with us anytime (as long as you ooh and aah appropriately)!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
More Damon
Here are some more pictures and video for you baby lovers out there. First some hospital videos from the other camera. This is Damon right after he was born, then a while later making funny noises (he likes to make cute noises), then being cute in the nursery.
Later that day I went to get the rest of the family.
Olivia was very cute with her new brother, and started singing him songs.
Being wise in the ways of hospitals now, Amber was ready to go about 25 hours after his birth. Here's Damon in his travelling outfit.
Here he is chilling at home.
As of today, Amber's milk has come in, so he is a very happy baby.
Later that day I went to get the rest of the family.
Olivia was very cute with her new brother, and started singing him songs.
Being wise in the ways of hospitals now, Amber was ready to go about 25 hours after his birth. Here's Damon in his travelling outfit.
Here he is chilling at home.
As of today, Amber's milk has come in, so he is a very happy baby.
Sunday, May 08, 2011
Damon
Amber once again decided that it's not enough to just have a baby on the due date, a few minutes after noon, but it must be on a special day also. She celebrated Mother's Day this year by giving birth to a beautiful baby boy. Damon Steven Brown tipped the scales at 7 pounds 12 ounces and measured 20 inches long.
Labor and delivery were textbook perfect. He waited for Amber's mom to fly in last night, then after being encouraged by a long, late-night walk, he made his move. I was awakened at about 4:30 AM (Amber about an hour earlier) and by 5:30 we were at the hospital. Amber had the pleasure of enduring contractions for a while until she got, according to her, the perfect epidural (she could feel everything except the pain). We waited a couple of hours for him to get into position, but once he was ready it only took a few pushes to see his black hair and he was out at 12:13 PM.
Here he is right after birth.
The obligatory scale shot, showing off his purple hue.
An early close up.
Snuggling with mommy. He had no troubles with feeding, and in fact seemed keenly interested in it the whole time I was there.
Speaking of me, here's the proud father.
Getting swaddled.
Some nursery shots.
He's been very vocal, not crying a lot, but just making lots of noises, even in his sleep.
Amber's already totally in love and I'm not far behind (she had a head start). More pictures and video to come, of course.
Labor and delivery were textbook perfect. He waited for Amber's mom to fly in last night, then after being encouraged by a long, late-night walk, he made his move. I was awakened at about 4:30 AM (Amber about an hour earlier) and by 5:30 we were at the hospital. Amber had the pleasure of enduring contractions for a while until she got, according to her, the perfect epidural (she could feel everything except the pain). We waited a couple of hours for him to get into position, but once he was ready it only took a few pushes to see his black hair and he was out at 12:13 PM.
Here he is right after birth.
The obligatory scale shot, showing off his purple hue.
An early close up.
Snuggling with mommy. He had no troubles with feeding, and in fact seemed keenly interested in it the whole time I was there.
Speaking of me, here's the proud father.
Getting swaddled.
Some nursery shots.
He's been very vocal, not crying a lot, but just making lots of noises, even in his sleep.
Amber's already totally in love and I'm not far behind (she had a head start). More pictures and video to come, of course.
Monday, May 02, 2011
Olivia's 4th bithday
It's hard to believe, but I now have a 4-year-old. We celebrated tonight by eating cupcakes and opening lots of pink presents. Here's Olivia showing her age.
She got lots of Disney princess merchandise like some smaller dolls to round out her collection, a nightgown, a coloring/sticker book, and her favorite, the big water-toy Ariel.
She took a bath with it tonight and played while singing songs from the movie, complete with her own lyrics, of course. She also got a few other things like some books and a clock for her room.
And of course, a few funny things like her screaming, flinging chicken from Grandma Brown.
Olivia has really grown up in this last year, yet in so many ways she's exactly the same. She still talks incessantly, never sleeps, and has to have things her way. She's also very caring and sensitive, and often surprises me with how generous and sharing she is, especially with Carmen. She's taken very well to the role of older sister and both she and Carmen hardly know what to do without each other anymore. They play together very well. Olivia has started reading and, just a few days ago, writing words independently. Not much, mind you, but she wrote me a card the other day without any prompting ("DER DADE [traced hands] LV OLIVIA"). I couldn't ask for a smarter, cuter, more loving kid. I'm glad I still have a few years before she moves out.
She got lots of Disney princess merchandise like some smaller dolls to round out her collection, a nightgown, a coloring/sticker book, and her favorite, the big water-toy Ariel.
She took a bath with it tonight and played while singing songs from the movie, complete with her own lyrics, of course. She also got a few other things like some books and a clock for her room.
And of course, a few funny things like her screaming, flinging chicken from Grandma Brown.
Olivia has really grown up in this last year, yet in so many ways she's exactly the same. She still talks incessantly, never sleeps, and has to have things her way. She's also very caring and sensitive, and often surprises me with how generous and sharing she is, especially with Carmen. She's taken very well to the role of older sister and both she and Carmen hardly know what to do without each other anymore. They play together very well. Olivia has started reading and, just a few days ago, writing words independently. Not much, mind you, but she wrote me a card the other day without any prompting ("DER DADE [traced hands] LV OLIVIA"). I couldn't ask for a smarter, cuter, more loving kid. I'm glad I still have a few years before she moves out.
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