In flight entertainment

Olivia and I are in Pennsylvania visiting my parents today. Which meant accelerating my aging process by 5 years with another adventure of traveling solo with baby. Somewhere in the middle of the 2nd hour, Olivia decided that she was bored and wanted to start shrieking. I was able to quiet her a little by playing airplane and trampoline, but there's only so much my weak arms could handle before she'd shriek again. A big thank you to the sweet French woman who took her a while to play with her. But that only worked for so long before the passengers in front of me started exchanging 'Make it stop' comments. Rather than saying, 'Thanks dude, and I'm also enjoying having your seat back into my lap' I made my third journey from the window seat to the back of the plane. I decided to hang out back there until the plane landed. Luckily, Olivia's still cute enough that the flight attendants wanted to play with her, because she sure is heavy and it's hard to hold a baby for that long. It was worth it though, we're having a great time in Pennsylvania getting spoiled by my parents!

New Poll -- How much does Olivia weigh?

We're going to the pediatrician this afternoon. Sorry to hog the fun of giving a baby shots all to myself, but you can play along by guessing Olivia's weight.

Olivia's First Easter

Here are some photos from Olivia's first Easter, which she spent with the extended Korts family in Santa Cruz. Sorry I missed it!

Olivia's 3/24 pediatrician visit

Height = 25.5 inches 75th percentile
Weight = 15.2 lbs 75th percentile
head circumference 42 cm HUGE

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! I think I will stop backdating blog posts and try harder to stay caught up on the blog. Today, Olivia is spending Easter with the Korts clan in Santa Cruz. I'm staying in Berkeley in an attempt to get caught up on some work. Of course, it's too beautiful a day to spend looking at databases, so I'm looking at photos of Olivia instead.

When my parents were kids, photography was expensive. Our parents had a few photos which they treasured. Photo equipment and printing prices became cheaper while we were kids, so we had albums full of photos which we'd peruse every now and then. Now that we're taking most of our pictures digitally, the marginal cost of a photograph is zero -- but the value of each image has also decreased. We take so many photos that it's hard to decide which ones to keep. And honestly, Olivia looks the same in most of the pics we take.

There are also a lot of questions about how to store digital photos. We store most photos on an external hard drive. But what happens when the disk fails? We're also sending images to my parents (who are presumbably also storing on their computer.) This is our backup, although it's doubtful that we'll ask my parents to copy the photos to an external drive when they dispose of the computer.

I suppose I should probably take some time each month to select some good images and store them on alternate media, say, burning them to a DVD. But the longetivity of DVD storage is debatable (I'm told that some people question whether digital data stored on DVDS will be recoverable 15 years from now.) Imagine if your parents gave you your old photos on 5" floppy disks.

Well, like all things, if you think about it too much it just creates more work. Perhaps my interim solution will be to put my father in charge.

GUEST BLOGGER - Margaret, Again!

I'm on the phone with my mom now, and she wants me to write into the blog to say that Mei-Zhu (Olivia) is 10xs cuter and nicer than a puppy. And she wants to remind Joyce that you have to take a puppy outside the house at least once a day. And she wanted to point out that Mei-Zhu lets you do anything you want to her. She will even open her mouth really wide so you can show her teeth. Also, you need to remember that Mei-Zhu will never smell like a "wet dog" (OK, OK - I added that one, but it's true, and Mom did say all the rest).

Mom says that if you send Olivia to Pennsylvania, then she will buy you 4 puppies as a trade!

I am cute

Last night, we met a couple friends for dinner and beverages at Cafe Gratitude. For some of the same reasons detailed in L's blog, Cafe Gratitude is the antithesis of Spencer's kind of cafe:

(from L's blog) "Signs that this restaurant might be annoying:

1: It is in Berkeley.
2: It is vegan.
3: Seating is community style, big tables. You eat with strangers, and presumably have a conversation about how colon cleansing in India changed your life, or, chew quietly and hold your tablemates’ spirits in a loving, grateful presence.
4: Menu items are titled as affirmations. For example, if you want to order the stuffed avocado, you must say “I Am Generous”. For tea: “I Am Vibrant”."

Contrast that with Spencer's modus operandi for choosing restaurants:
1: Fast
2: Fast
3: Fast.

Spencer is clearly not this restaurant's target market. Nor are several other yelpers. If I owned the cafe, I would probably post back 'Screw you, angry yuppies. Go back to your cow eating and road rage.' But I bet that the owners really are above having negative people impact their life.

Which leads me to think about how we want Olivia to grow up. We're hoping she can be positive, relaxed, easy going, patient -- all of the things we've forgotten how to be in our busy lives. Perhaps taking her to Gratitude on a regular basis will help remind all of us to slow down a little, and to reaffirm the positive things in our life.

Also -- the meal was pretty tasty.

Olivia's first teeth

Approximately when I visited Texas (President's Day Weekend,) we noticed that Olivia was chewing on everything she could get her hands on. Since then, three of Olivia's teeth have grown in. She's definitely teething, putting everything she can get her hands on into her mouth.

Which leads me to today's contemplation, what's easier -- puppies or babies?

Teething -- Our baby hasn't yet destroyed any of my shoes or furniture. Score one for children.

Housetraining -- A puppy can be housetrained within a few months. On the other hand, babies can take upwards of 2 years to be housetrained.

Home Alone -- Since those visits from Child Protective Services are quite time consuming, score another one for puppies.

Conception and gestation -- Although Spencer rather enjoyed the conception part, gestation was not a walk in the park. Puppies 3, Children 1

Someone to provide company and affection when I enter my elder years -- Puppies 4, Children 1