David Valentine

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year everyone! Claire and I returned from a trip to Australia just 10 days ago. We're still going through all the photos, so it'll be a while before we can show them all. The trip was great, and I really enjoyed showing off Brynn to all Claire's extended family. Brynn loved it in OZ, and by the end of the 2 weeks there could name all of Claire's family- Nana, Pa, Bron, Paul, and David. She even knows what sound a Kookaburra makes now!
Everyone asked about the flight and what it was like to take an 18 month old. It certainly isn't as "nice" as a flight without one, but it could have been worse. Brynn slept for about 2/3 of the time, and generally followed the pseudo sleep cycles they have on the long 15 hour Qantas flight. We bought her a seat of her own and brought along the car seat. This made the ride a lot more comfortable for her (and us), and a lot less pleasant for the person in front of her whose seat she constantly kicked. The best we could do was take off her shoes, and try to calm her down when she went into a karate kick frenzy. Everyone was surprisingly tolerant of Brynn (perhaps it's her cuteness) and we didn't get one single complaint or even a negative comment from anyone!
We didn't do much sightseeing, as we've done that all before, but we did make it to the Melbourne Aquarium. They have their Creepy Creatures exhibit going on right now. Brynn had fun looking at the fish in the tanks, and picking up the starfish that she tried to keep. We also took Brynn to her first Cricket game. No, it wasn't my first, well my second actually. She mostly focused on the birds flying around the stadium that she called ducks. But she did really get into the wave when the crowd did it.

I had a few things on my list to do while I was out there, other than just catch up with family, and drink copius amount of aussie wine and beer:

Eat a Curry Laksa - the closest you'll find in the US is a Curry Mee at a Malaysian place, but it's still not nearly as good.
Stroll down and eat on Lygon St. - an historic Italian district with lots of good Italian and now Asian places.
Gamble at Crown - They're right when they say the only way to win at the casino is to buy their stock (which I have and it's up a lot).
Catch up with some of my old workmates from Melbourne IT.
Eat a meat pie - aussies are famous for them.
Go to the Queen Victoria Market - a tourist trap, but still has good deals if you know where to look and you bargain.
Spend New Years on the streets of Melbourne.

That's all the ones I can think of right now. Not surprisingly half of them involve food.

12:12:09 AM

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Sunday, November 05, 2006

A picture named BrynnAsABatAfterCandy.jpg

Here is Brynn in one of her Halloween costumes. She was a bat during the evening and The Flash at daycare. Both costumes had masks but she's not really into hats and was strangling herself trying to get them off, so we only had half the effect going.

        If you’ve been checking the gallery regularly you have probably noticed that there have been no new photos added lately. This is not due to laziness. It is due to having a toddler who knows what a camera is and covets it’s magical gadget qualities. As soon as it appears she heads over and demands it. I can sometimes get off a single shot but usually by the second shot she’s up in my face screaming for me to hand it over so she can look at photos of herself, or walk around looking through the view finder. All my photo sequences consist of one normal, blurry photo. A close up of Brynn’s face as she grabs for the camera and then five shots of her lying on the ground, crying, because I wouldn’t give her the camera.

        Her gadget prowess also extends to my cell phone. I was taking pictures of her in the car a couple of weeks ago and I handed it over to her to look at. By the time I got the camera back she had managed to take about 5 photos, including a couple where she had managed to add fancy borders to them. I’m not even sure how to do that. Of course, all photos were of the back of my seat so, while her technical skills may be advanced, her pictures are severely lacking in artistic merit.

        She has also managed to call David on my cell phone a couple of times. It’s not too difficult. I think if you hit “talk” twice then it calls the last outgoing number and that’s always David. The first time she didn’t realize she had called him, and was still playing with the buttons when I noticed. The second time was at the park when she was looking through my bag and trying to open my wallet, and pull things out of the pockets. To keep her occupied I gave her the cell phone and then went and sat on a bench. I watched her as she opened the phone and held it up to her ear then wandered around having a “conversation” for the next five minutes. I was mainly thinking that it was kind of embarrassing to have a 17 month old that apparently sees enough of her mother on a phone to know how to use one. (Not true by the way! I hardly ever use my phone. Dave is the one setting that example!!)

        It was only later when I called David that I found out she actually called him, he answered and they proceeded to have a long conversation. He was even asking her questions like “What sound does a coyote make?” and she was making the animal sound. She also learned to say “Hello” recently which is more hilarious than you could imagine. It’s usually “Hellooooo” but sometimes her tongue gets stuck on the “lo” part so it ends up being “Helololo”. She apparently spent a lot of time telling him “Helloooo”.

        Her language skills are taking off at the moment. Dave was out of town for 5 days and when he came back he was amazed at all the new skills she had – particularly in imitating words we say. She can now say “Mee” which means Milk. She has Mama and Dada but Dada actually means David, whereas Mama can mean me, or it can also mean Banana. She still says Ball. She says “Buh Bye” and “Bye Bye”. She can point and name “eye” and can point to the nose but usually says “No”. She also learned the words for her favorite things: shoes & books. She loves books so much that she will literally sit for an hour looking through these tiny board books she has. She also loves shoes and will spend an hour trying to get a shoe on her foot.

        She recently learned how to apply No to real world situations which leads to lots of arguments. Claire: Yes! Brynn: NO!! Also, when having her diaper change, she lies there and sadly whimpers “no, no, no, no, no” which amuses me greatly because the worst thing about the whole process is that the wipes are kind of cold. She makes it seem so dramatic.

Another interesting Brynn feature is her extreme pain tolerance (unless you count combing out hair tangles which makes her scream). I have witnessed several incidents that would make a lesser baby cry but Brynn rarely hurts herself to the point where she cries, and I could probably count on one hand the number of times she has injured herself and cried long enough for me to go and comfort her. Case in point, a few weeks ago I was sitting in the living room and she was playing at my feet, no more than 6 feet away. After a while she came over to me and I noticed a big gash across her cheek that was bleeding. Presumably she cut herself on the corner of a box or other toy, but she had not made any sound to indicate she was hurt.

Another time she was playing with a little girl who was probably 6 years old. The older girl was lying on a bench and Brynn was standing next to it. The girl accidentally rolled off the bench on to Brynn (it was carpeted floor at least!). The girl, whose fall had been cushioned by Brynn, jumped up and started crying, then ran to her father for comfort. Brynn jumped up and started laughing and chased after the girl, thinking it was a game.

The final incident was when Brynn was playing in the recycling. She lifted an empty beer bottle out and then it slipped and fell on to her toe, from a height of about 2 feet. I think if I had a bottle dropped on my toe from that height I would have had a greater reaction than Brynn. She said “Umppph” and staggered back a couple of steps, then sat down. She started to whimper but by the time I walked over, she was already recovered and getting ready to grab the bottle again.

Her high physical pain tolerance is countered by her low emotional pain tolerance. This baby gets frustrated more easily than anyone I’ve ever seen. She sees me with grapes for her. In the couple of extra seconds it takes for me to wash them and take them to her, she has started screaming and has real tears rolling down her cheeks.

She recently moved up to the two year old room at daycare. It’s a bit more like a school, in that they spend time working on letters and numbers and have a fairly structured day with lots of activities. She’s taking a little while to adjust but I think she’s going to be very happy there because there’s a lot more running around and dancing. It’s also a very noisy room and Brynn should be right at home with all the mayhem.

Her teacher told us that Brynn is left-handed which we hadn’t realized. I’d been paying attention when she started using utensils but I decided she was right-handed. But at daycare she apparently colors and eats with her left hand. I’ve been watching since then and she does seem to be more dexterous with the left hand but she seems to use both hands equally when holding a spoon or fork. The teacher said she’s the first left-handed girl she’s ever had in that room and David is very thrilled to have a lefty daughter. I am trying to decide if I need to find our local “Leftorium”.

8:53:32 PM

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Sunday, September 24, 2006

A picture named BrianOnAHorseWithAnEgg.jpg

Here is a picture of my good friend Brian making his way in style to his wedding to marry Roshni. This is the Ghori Ceremony, where the groom makes his triumphant arrival to the wedding on a mare. I'm still trying to figure out what that jeweled egg he's carrying is all about. I was wondering what a wedding event listed in the program guide as occuring in the parking lot was all about!

2:45:27 PM

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Monday, August 21, 2006

Apologies. It really has been too long. I was bugging David to make a post but apparently he has some issue with the fact that someone he knows might actually read this. I think he's going to create an anonymous blog so we'll post the link to that when he does ;)

To briefly summarize the last three months: Brynn walks very fast; she has about four words; she climbs stairs; she likes spaghetti; she is stubborn and wilful.

We drove to Ohio (ugh!) for an outdoor party on Carol's family farm, only to have it pour rain, night and day. We drove back the next day (ugh!) and I'm still trying to get the mud stains out of Brynn's clothes a month later. On the upside, Brynn apparently loves live bluegrass music.

We went to California for a week at Bruinwoods. Aah, California. Why don't I live there? 85 degrees every day. No humidity, no rain, not even a cloud in the sky. We did very little except for swimming in the pool. Brynn is definitely a water baby. This trip coincided with the no-liquid ban on planes, which went into effect a couple of days before we flew home. Strangely our trip back was easier than the way over but it's still a huge headache in general. On line for hours, constant bag checks etc. Having a toddler just adds to the fun. I have no problem with airplanes but I really hate flying because of the airports.

Now we are back and watching the summer wane. Work is the same old for both of us. That's about it. Upcoming events include: winter; me wishing I was living in California; a possible trip to Australia (vs. the horror of having to actually get there); Brynn hopefully starting to talk; me wishing Brynn would stop talking; work, work work. The End.

I've been updating the gallery fairly regularly so even if we're slack about posting there are usually new photos up every couple of weeks. I put the most recent set up tonight. Oddly enough, it's mostly pictures of Brynn.

10:15:16 PM

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Sunday, May 21, 2006

Brynn had her first birthday this week but it was a very low key event. David was out in California so I brought her into work with me and we had a mini-celebration in the cafeteria with a couple of my work friends. I bought her a cupcake but she refused to even taste it. Crazy baby! She did however polish off a cold jar of peas which is her second favorite food so I guess that counts as a treat (bleh!).
A picture named Brynn Walk.jpg

Here is a picture of her showing off her amazing ability to walk. About 10 days ago she decided that she no longer crawls and is only going to walk where she wants to go. Unfortunately this new policy was hampered by her inability to actually walk more than a couple of steps without falling over. Her travels would involve standing herself up, falling over again about 50% of the time, standing up again, taking a few steps, falling and then repeating the whole process until she got where she wanted. The funniest part was when she was literally a step or two away from her destination and she would fall. I would wait for her to crawl the last couple of feet but she'd insist on walking. A very stubborn little girl.

We had a string of bad luck that started when I broke my toe two weeks ago. I have never broken a bone in my body before and apparently that was some kind of good-luck talisman that I no longer have to protect me because it opened the flood gates of bad luck. Next Brynn got very sick and we ended up taking her to the ER. She had strep-throat and was very sick for about 4 days. This coincided with the "walking-only" policy but she had absolutely no balance or strength in her legs so she couldn't get around anywhere. She was infuriated. As soon as she got better she was an absolute pro at the walking so she's happy as a clam now.

Dave caught her strep throat the day he was due to fly to San Francisco for a conference but he got on antibiotics straight away and was well enough to fly the next day. He got back yesterday. Oh and he won some ridiculous prize that I'll let him post about. Basically a nerd toy so over-the-top that even he thinks it's too much. Maybe that signals the end of the bad luck. I hope so because I don't need any more illnesses, dentist appointments, doctor visits, prescriptions or broken bones.

So that's been our week - our little girl is growing up fast! Still, it's been the longest year of my life and people who say it's going by so fast are crazy. 1 year down, 17 to go!

11:27:02 AM

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Monday, April 24, 2006

And so it begins...

The walking has started. Yes, it's finally happened. I think we can count today as the official 'first steps' day because Brynn actually took a few consecutive steps unassisted which she hasn't managed until now. She's been getting close in the last couple of weeks but seemed to lack the confidence. Lately she's been working on her standing. She'll be holding on to something then she will let go and put her arms in the air and waver for a few seconds before grabbing on to the nearest object for support. We've been 'helping' by standing her up in the middle of the room, getting her steady and then letting go. Today David was standing a few feet away with his arms out and she took a couple of steps towards him and then sat herself down when she started to lose her balance. She did that a few more times and is actually pretty good at falling, in that she doesn't face plant. She can either sit herself down or slowly bend forward until her hands are on the ground. That's a pretty exciting development. I think she's going to be a lot happier when she can walk. I've noticed that she seems to become exceptionally cranky before she hits a big milestone (sitting, crawling etc.) and so if her current crankiness is an indication then she'll be running by the end of the week.

We had our first night away from Brynn this past weekend. Dave's mom, Joan, became a member of the National Academy of Sciences which apparently is a huge deal in the world of nerds. Er, I mean in the world of braniacs. So we went to Washington D.C. for the ceremony which involved lots of ner... scientists walking onto a stage and signing a giant book. Hilarity ensued when many of them were unable to coordinate the signing, handshaking and two photo opportunities required while they were up there. I felt kind of bad laughing at these people who were in the process of receiving one of the greatest honors of their lives and yet were causing the whole audience to crack up because they were forgetting to look up and smile at the camera after signing their names. But then again, everyone else was laughing so what was I supposed to do - sit there and appreciate their scientific accomplishments? Anyway, Joan navigated the entire procedure without a hitch which may be one of the only advantages to having a surname starting with one of the last letters of the alphabet. There was plenty of time to figure out what the 60 people who had gone before were doing wrong, and memorize what not to do.

We are very proud of her but unfortunately got to spend far too little time catching up with everyone because there were many events going on and we were only there for the ceremony and reception. We left Brynn with a different set of grandparents - Carol and Don - and took the train to D.C. on Saturday afternoon. I think everyone expected we would miss Brynn desperately but in fact we were basking in the joy of travelling without a baby. No stroller, no carseat, no bottles, no diaper bag, no screaming brat. It was wonderful! On Sunday morning we took an early train back to Newark because we didn't want to stress out our babysitters, but it sounds like they had a really good time. Brynn was well-behaved and, praise the lord, I think they may even be willing to babysit again sometime! Brynn seemed very excited to see us and spent the first hour in a wild, happy, screaming frenzy. Very cute.

Apart from that, not much is new. Dave's been busy at work with a big project that went live this weekend. I think it went well. We've been enjoying the warmer weather and are finally able to take advantage of the lawn. It's too small to be good for much but we can put a rug down in the backyard and lie outside with Brynn. She's very content to stay on the rug and pick up little acorns and pieces of grass from the edge. Unfortunately our font lawn is really disgusting, to the point where we are wondering if someone sabotaged it. I was pretty good about watering it last summer but it's all brown and revolting with no actual grass, just patches of clover and crabgrass. The back is ok which is nice for hanging out with Brynn but Dave is now concerned that the neighbors hate us for bringing their property values down with our weed bed/dirt patch in the front. We've hired a lawn specialist to fix it for us so we'll wait and see if that pays off. *fingers crossed*

I'm trying to think what else is new. I'm in the process of getting a new set of pictures to put up so check back soon. Brynn has four teeth now. She's also saying what I would consider her first real word "Hi!" in that she understands the meaning and can say it properly. She says it over and over and waves at the same time. It's very sweet. She likes playing with blocks and has actually tolerated having a book read to her once or twice now. Big progress! She has always hated books and attacked them on sight but now we can actually read them aloud while she plays nearby and she does not rip them from our hands and bite them as often as she used to.

9:39:48 PM

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Friday, March 10, 2006

I'll open with the obligatory excuse for not posting recently: it's been a busy couple of months. Actually not that busy but just tiring enough that coming home and posting about the banal details of our life does not seem very exciting. But it's about time to get this over with.

Brynn update first of all. We just had her 9 month ped visit and she's a pretty standard baby. On target with the various skills and about 50% percentile for weight, 50% for height. She really is more like a toddler than a baby all of a sudden. She's very aware of what's going on around her and especially what she can and cannot do. As the things she can do increase she is getting less frustrated and more curious. Just in the last couple of weeks she's learnt to get into a sitting position from lying down, pull herself up to a standing position while holding on to something and crawl around with ever increasing efficiency. The other day she got home from daycare, crawled to the coffee table, pulled herself up and started walking around and around it with great speed. The day before she had not even been able to take more than one tentative step and suddenly she was a pro. That was pretty cool.

She loves crawling around and is currently doing a combination of a standard and commando crawl. It's been very interesting to see her figuring it all out in the last month. She started with a kind of random pushing with her legs and pulling with her arms that often ended up with the arms falling behind while the legs kept going and she'd face plant into the floor. Then she managed to coordinate the arms and legs so she moved much faster but still had her whole body on the ground. She's almost at the final stage where she gets her elbows off the ground and her whole body is elevated. She manages to get around pretty well so I'm kind of dreading her being a little crawling speed demon.

People seem very interested in the teeth status and finally there is something to report. Her first tooth broke through about a month ago and she now has the two front ones on the bottom. They are still fairly small, not all the way out but she seems to enjoy using them to bite food. She is beginning to tolerate food that is not pureed which is a nice advance. Previously she would start gagging until she threw up if she got a little chunk of food in the back of her mouth. She's still cautious about it but is getting much better. Also, I suppose we should enjoy the advantage we currently have while her instinct is to spit things out if they get in her mouth, rather than try to swallow them.

We had one funny thing occur the other night. Brynn was taking a bath and we were trying out the new camera and took a couple of pictures. Later I was looking at the pictures on the computer while Brynn was in my lap. She has seen photos of herself on the computer before and never seems too impressed, but this time she was very intrigued by a video of herself in the bath. Then I showed her a picture where she had her mouth open looking like she was growling at the camera. It looked a little threatening and Brynn stared at the picture looking very concerned. After about 30 seconds of staring she started to whimper. Then she put her head on my shoulder (which she NEVER does) and continued to stare at it with a upset look on her face. She would sometimes turn to us and making little crying noises then go back to looking at the photo. Dave and I couldn't stop laughing. She was scared of her own photo. Eventually she seemed to get over it and stopped acting so freaked out but it was pretty hilarious.

Apart from that she's still a happy and friendly little girl. She has become very loud, especially when using her monster voice. (Imagine a cute little baby saying "dadadadada" in a sweet, high pitched voice and then suddenly this booming, throaty evil voice takes over "DADADADADA". Creeeeepy)

I turned 30 recently which was fairly boring. Considering I have a house, a job, a baby and a family sedan I already felt like I had made the transition into my 30s so it is not exactly a soul-crushing blow.

We decided to throw a big party at our house because we've been meaning to have a housewarming, baby welcoming etc. party ever since we moved 18 months ago but we hadn't gotten around to it. A 30th birthday seemed like a good reason to finally get motivated. We sent out invitations and thus were committed. It's a ridiculous amount of work planning a party, especially with a baby cutting down how effectively you can use your time. I feel as if we did nothing but clean and prepare for about 4 weeks straight. It was pretty fun. There was eating, drinking, poker and karaoke. Brynn was very well behaved and looked cute in her party dress. I didn't get any pictures of it so I'll have to dress her up and do a photo shoot.

That's about the only stuff that's been going on lately. It was super warm today - in the mid 70s - which is kind of crazy for this time of year. It's barely been getting above freezing in the past few weeks so this was weird. We were all very overdressed.

Here we have the picture that terrified Brynn:
A picture named BrynnFreakedOutInTheTub.jpg

A picture named BrynnFreakedOutInTheTub.jpg

11:36:09 PM

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