So I dropped the boy at daycare this morning. As usual, when he’s in a new environment around new people he’s more intent on looking around, checking the place out, and flirting with all the women than worry why I’m not with him. I’m so glad he’s such an outgoing baby and not afraid of other people.
I’m hoping to get downstairs and see how he’s doing this afternoon, but I just discovered 2 meeting that have filled my afternoon…we’ll have to figure out when I can get there.
Ari, Simeon and I made it back from our Kansas City trip and I figure it’s about time to update. Since there’s quite a bit, I’ll split things up between posts. I’ll even be kind and start with the reason most people actually look at my blog…
Simeon Stuff
Sitting up: I have already posted this, but he is sitting by himself as long as somebody helps him up. He has great balance…until he leans too far forward. Then he does a face plant, pulls his legs out from underneath him and gets a little tummy time.
Movement: He hasn’t gotten the hang of forward motion yet, but he can go in circles and scoot backwards. Of course, going backwards isn’t quite the intention. Daddy was holding out a toy to him and after attempting to scoot closer and reach the toy, Simeon wound up a few inches further away and let us know his frustration. ‘HEY…why are you being so mean? why did you move the toy away?’
Pulling up: The boy has strength. Give him a finger for each hand and a tiny bit of help and he loves to be standing up. Amazingly, he does most of the pushing to stand up by himself. He’d love to go from laying down to standing up in one motion, but I’m forcing him to get to the sitting position first – and hoping he’ll prefer to stay sitting for a few minutes.
Teething: I swear this boy is going to gum my finger off. With the amount of force Simeon can chomp on my finger without teeth, I’m starting to worry about the whole teeth and breastfeeding thing. He has started to enjoy chomping on a pacifier, well…actually he enjoys chomping on anything right now. He still refuses to suck on a pacifier.
Well…I think that covers the basics. I’ll add a new picture once we upload our KC pictures.
Posted in Simeon
My dad sent this picture to me and I was amused enough to post it.
Just in case there’s anybody who doesn’t quite get the joke…you probably aren’t Jewish. Consider that fact and look again. If you still don’t find it funny try this one.
If I have still failed to make you laugh, hopefully I have at least made you smile.
Posted in Humor
It’s been longer than I anticipated between postings…
I see a skylight in the tunnel – not quite the end of the tunnel, but there’s definitely light. Help is arriving in QA in a couple weeks…the offer has been accepted. And, on top of that, a coworker is doing a second screen for the other position; so, in a couple weeks the QA department should be up to 3 people…woohoo!
Simeon Stuff
The latest Simeon feat is his ability to sit up!
He can’t quite get there by himself, but he does have balance. In fact, if I lay him on his back, he immediately tries to sit up and gets pissed off when he can’t get there. It definitely makes diaper changing interesting…only to become more so when he does figure out how to do this solo.
Ari put the high chair together last night, so hopefully soon we’ll be able to have a go with the rice cereal. Can’t say Simeon was excited to be in the chair last night tho. We tried putting him there with some toys on the tray while we finished making our dinner and I think it was too similar to being in the carseat…if it isn’t going to move, he shouldn’t need to be in and buckled.
Posted in Friendship, Simeon, Work
Well, I’m trying to anyway. Work is keeping me quite busy and I have no one to help me right now. Just finished testing one project, in the middle of testing another, and two more projects are starting to test this week…one of which I’m already a day late to start. We’ve gotten to the point of looking for a temp-to-hire type person…somebody to just help take some of the load off my shoulders even if they don’t have much experience at all. I’ll be interviewing 2 people for that position this week as well another interview for the Sr. QA position. Hopefully I will soon be less wary of my rowboat tipping over.
Tegan Time
She hasn’t been participating in bath time as much, but still watches over Simeon. I tend to use the hair dryer (lowest setting) on his hair…partially cuz I think he likes the noise, and partially because watching Tegan is so amusing. As soon as it starts, she just glares at it. Then, after a minute or so, she’ll start to swipe at the warm air. Even after I turn it off and lay it down, she just stares at it, making sure it doesn’t move again. At least she doesn’t run away when I aim it at her now.
Simeon Stuff
Originally, I was thinking of starting solids a week or two ago. However, if we wanted to do mealtime right, we wanted to make sure he could sit and eat at the table like us adults. So this weekend we made a high chair purchase. Last week, I saw the Fisher Price Space Saver High Chair and really liked it — all the features of a full-sized high chair but small and compact.
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Features:
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Of course, like I do with most things, now that we bought it, I’m seconding guessing my purchase. Did I really need to worry about the space of a big chair? Should I be worried that it’s so new that there aren’t many reviews on it? Will it be sturdy enough to withstand an infant and a toddler? Well, I just read through the reviews on Target’s site. After 10 reviews, this chair has a perfect 5-star rating – including reviews from parents of children ranging from 5 months old to 2 years old. And I can actually relate to the last review on the page:
“We saw this one as soon as it became available and bought it based on the description and the way it looked. I was a little hesitant that there were no reviews, but decided to give it a shot…”
Let’s see how it goes. The box was light enough, that this may be an option to take with us when we go out to eat rather than use the high chairs with no back.
updated: 3/21/2006
Ari’s first day back to work is today, so Simeon’s official first day of daycare is with our friend, Carrie. We had a trial run last week when Ari and his brother, Ian, went skiing for the day.
Thank you, Carrie!
When I heard that there were plans for a Starbucks to be part of the new supermarket in our neighborhood, I wondered what that would do for the current local coffee shop, Bibo. I expected some people to defect, but hoped that many would prefer (like me) a local place over a national chain.
Well, regardless of what the patrons want (and I have no clue what that is), the owners of Bibo have a hearing today in King County Superior Court to decide the fate of the Starbucks arrival. Last fall, Bibo sued their landlord for fraud and breach of contract.
According to the article, the lease included the following clause:
“Landlord shall not lease space in premises that it owns at Snoqualmie Ridge, other than as part of any future grocery store development, to a full-service coffee shop.”
The article argues that the term “development” is the key word in the case. However, what stops me is that entire phrase “other than as part of any future grocery store development”. The way I would understand it — the landlord couldn’t lease a space to a Starbucks stand-alone building, but as long as the coffee shop was part of the grocery store, it would still fit within the lease.
The article continues to note that Bibo owners were enticed with the idea of no competition for awhile, but the wording in the article leads me to believe that the landlord was just using slippery language
“…persuaded them to sign the lease, assuring them that the only other coffee shop in the reatail plaza would be located in a grocery store…”
Now-a-days, almost all supermarkets (at least new ones) have a full-service coffee shop attached. Just because the only other coffee shop would be in the grocery store, does not necessarily guarantee it’s just a coffee counter.
Regardless of the outcome, I hope we don’t lose Bibo – especially to a chain – and that they continue to have a loyal customer base from our community.
Posted in News, Snoqualmie
About a week ago, Ari was in half-price bookstore and saw a children’s book whose main character was named Simeon. Unfortunately, when telling me about it later, he couldn’t remember the author, or the exact name of the book. I thought the idea of having this book was too good to pass up (how many children’s books – or any book for that matter – feature a Simeon?), so when we were back a day or two later, I just kept scanning the shelves in hopes of finding it. Eventually, I gave up and vowed to look it up online. After a little searching on Amazon, I found it and bought it used! Simeon’s Gift by Julie Andrews. It even came with a CD – featuring Julie Andrews as the reader.
A synopsis as posted on Amazon:
Convinced that his “lowly status” and the “simplicity of his art” will never provide more than a “meager existence” for his beloved, minstrel Simeon sets out on a fairy tale-like quest to free the music “deep in his soul.” He encounters a veritable symphony of new sounds on his pilgrimage–the insistent beat of soldiers’ drums, the harmonic chanting of monks, the general cacophony of a big city–but sadly, this barrage of new sounds bewilders and overwhelms Simeon, who feels his own attempts at song suffer in comparison. Lonely and weary, he abandons his quest and trades his lute for a canoe to take him home. On the way, Simeon befriends a bright little bird, a beautiful fish, and lovely fawn who become his companions. Heartened by his new friends and overjoyed to see his beloved Sorrel, Simeon breaks into song and discovers the music of his soul.
Tegan Time
Um…I still feel the need to add something, though there isn’t much to say.
Simeon Stuff
Ari and Ian took Simeon to the Women’s Center recently and weighed — 13 lbs 6 ounces! Definitely growing…we estimate it to be about 5 ounces a week. Apparently after 3 months, 3 ounces a week is good, so I’m really happy.
I’m beginning to wonder if the boy is teething – tho 4.5 months seems to be extremely early. Symptoms include: slobbering and blowing bubbles (for at least 3 weeks now); crying for no other apparent reason; chewing on fingers instead of sucking on them.
I’m also beginning to wonder if Ari and I should start introducing a few solids. The doctor said something about it at his last checkup – though we initially thought it was because he’d be 6 months by the next visit. However…one couple in the playgroup started at 4 months 1 week after the doctor said they were classified as a “family with low risks of allergies”. Since I am currently no where close to keeping up with his demands during the day (and actually getting further and further from those demands1), maybe starting to introduce solids will help keep him satisfied.
1 Hopefully this is only due to the current stress at work and will get back to normal once I have additional help and meet my deadlines.
A guide to branding the Microsoft I-pod.
Not much going on for me right now…not that I can really think of…
My office now has a new phone system in place and one of the nice things that go along with that is the ability to manage voicemail and such via a relatively nice GUI. It’s not extremely pretty, but it is easy to use. I also took advantage of this opportunity to get my new phone mounted on the wall next to me. Now, I can actually see who’s calling.
Tegan Time
The amusement factor still hasn’t worn off. The last few times I’ve given Simeon a bath, Tegan is right there – not only to oversee, but to help. At least last night she managed to prewash his hair rather than find the spots I missed. It’s so cute to see Tegan be so motherly. The other night, after starting the bath water, I needed to run to Simeon’s room to grab clothes and a diaper. I turned to Tegan, who was nearby and said “Tegan, watch him for me.” That said, she got up, moved closer to him and just stared at him. When I got back, she was sitting at his feet. How cute is that?!
Simeon Stuff
What’s new with Simeon? He’s starting to realize the potential of his vocal chords. He has started squealing with much more gusto – and right into daddy’s ear too. For anybody interested, we’ve updated our website with links to the newest pictures.
1001 Days
I’ve managed a couple things on my list, and Ari seems to have done a couple things for me. I do need to find a better way to update my list, but until then I’ll just modify the original and link to the entry.
Posted in 101 in 1001, Simeon, Tegan, Work
Piya's Perspective 