That's Disgusting

Shackling someone to their ceiling until they are dead (seven and a half days) is worse than gruesome. There should be generals and majors and lawyers held accountable for these vile acts. Ideally presidents and vice presidents will be held accountable as well. Lock up the criminals.

Neo-Pagan Hedonism

Its a glorious thought, no?

Sense of Mortality

We hit another couple of milestones with the girls today. Every time that happens I feel a pang of loss at the fact that we'll not ever have that same "first time" at some small achievement again.

Today Leia climbed the stairs for the first time. I was inches behind ready to catch her if she fell; but, she didn't need the slightest of help from the first floor all the way up to wandering the landing. I'll try to get a video of it tomorrow. We also handed off the Double-Decker Stroller and the cosleepers. I dropped them off at a colleague's office, the director of engineering for Photoshop. He and his wife are expecting twins in November. Looks like he's gonna disappear this fall and re-emerge sometime the following year.

Dropping off the cosleepers left me with a very heavy feeling. Its as if my own death were present in the room, a flesh and blood presence walking hand-in-hand with me. The girls really only used the cribs for daytime naps. Their first beds were the cosleepers. Loosing them was closing a chapter of my life (trite but true.)

In the beginning they both used the same bed. Within days I was sleeping every night with one of the girls either on my chest or inches from my face. It was possible to open my left eye and see a baby girl right over the cosleeper's short, padded lip. When she cried, I held her and put her back to sleep. When she was hungry I fed her (unless she was going straight to the tap, in which case I passed her to Hirono so she could feed her without getting up from bed.) Sleep came in 2-3 hour increments a couple of times a day. The world was a spinning blur around me. I barely managed to keep a grip on work.

Eventually we settled into a pattern. One girl would sleep next to me for two weeks and one would sleep next to Hirono. Then switch. Slowly we moved to four hour patches of sleep. At four months colic hit and sleep was more like 2-3 hours total every day. Although this time period seems like only a single instant my memory, colic really lasted about 3 months. Leia with colic was impossible; but, soothing her to sleep was tremendously moving. Looking back over my life, those colic nights with both girls were some of the most powerful moments ever. Try holding two screaming, colicky babies sometime - one on each arm - while being severely sleep deprived for 6 months. It'll literally drive you past the point of sanity.

But when the girls finally fell to sleep I always put them back in their co-sleeper, rolled into bed, and watched out of my left eye as they quietly settled into the mattress. Sometimes Alisa held onto my thumb as she slept. Leia went into The Ninja position. The relief of peacefulness was tempered by knowing I'd be up again in 2 hours to do it all over again. Still, two hours of bliss...

Now those trials are over and the co-sleepers are gone. The loss is filled with a heavy sense of mortality.

Juvenile

Yeah, I get it. People have sex. Can we please stop making such a todo of it?

This is a private matter between two families. So what if the fellow is a raving hypocrite. Many folks are raving hypocrites.

Don't click on this link. Hitting it only drives the clicks and makes advertisers pay more for this kind of stupid media coverage. Some of my customers are advertisers and this is definitely a way to do business.

Updated: Its about another Republican US Senator having an affair. Don't let the oblique nature of my post let curiosity get the better of you. :^) --e

More Progress

Here's a short update on the girls' progress:

Leia and Alisa are both allergic to eggs. That totally sucks since eggs are everywhere and a significant part of my normal diet. Luckily, their allergy is mild and it is likely they will outgrow it with steady, small doses over time. So we now have the task of feeding them small amounts of egg twice per week. Today was french toast sans syrup. They liked it because I cut them each a small strip the size of a carrot stick that they could eat with their own hands.

Leia is to the point now that she eats more food if she can feed herself than when we spoon feed her. That's both good and bad. The good part is that if we're clever enough to make sure her meal is all finger food (such as strips of french toast with strawberry chunks) then she eats plenty. If her food is something more slimy like porridge or tofu then we're in for a huge mess. Someday we'll have to sand and repaint the base boards...

They've also branched out into other foods. They drink cow's milk from their sippy cups now. Leia loves mozzarela fresca perlini. Crackers are high up on their list of favorites as well; but, nothing will ever top Cheerios.

Update: Oh, yeah, and yogurt. How could I forget yogurt? Its the only slimy food that Leia likes well enough to sit still and let us keep spoon feeding her until its all gone.

Cookie

Projection

This article has got to be one of the funniest bits of psychological projection I've ever seen.

Babydom is Officially Over

The girls turned 1 year old on Wednesday. They are now officially toddlers. I've not had the chance to blog about it yet due to just being swamped with many things.

They were both uncomfortable on their birthday. Leia has had a fever since Tuesday and is just grouchy all day long. Alisa had live vaccinations and so was also a bit uncomfortable, but not too bad. Not to worry, Hirono and I still had a piece of birthday cake each for them.

Their haul included: a toy car walker for Leia, a toy stroller walker for Alisa, a pair of professional-grade shakers (latin percussion) and tamborine for both of them, a set of Miffy hiragana wooden blocks for both of them and a pile of clothes for both of them. Not bad for a first birthday!

Updated: There are some pictures up now.