Does Hope Know It’s Christmas Time At All?

Christmas has come and gone, and for Hope, it was a wonderful, if overwhelming time.

In the last few weeks, our house has undergone a lot of internal modifications- weatherizing some windows and doors, adding a Christmas tree in Hope’s playroom, and setting up Hope’s play area.  There’s enough room for the three of us and a plethora of Hope’s toys.  Our home is safe for Hope and it’s great to have a spot for her to play in that we can completely control.

As for Christmas, it’s safe to say that Hope had a good time.  We’ve seen a lot of family and friends over the last few days.  While she’s shy at first,  she eventually opens up and joins the party.  The three of us have spent time with both sides of the family and we think Hope knows that something special has been going on lately.

Christmas morning, Hope awoke to find her play room filled with some new toys- a farm playset, a 100-piece set of styrofoam blocks (that were already set up) and a wrapped box.  Hope’s approach to the toys has been interesting.  She loves to knock over the farm.  She has no use for 99 of the blocks, as her favorite thing has been to take one of the blocks and chew on it, ignoring all the others.  As for the box, well, it’s still mostly wrapped and makes noise as you touch it (rumor has it that it’s a remote control).  Hope has torn away at some of the paper, but seems more content with toppling over the farm or chewing on one of her blocks.  If we’re lucky we can recycle the mystery box for her birthday!

For the past few days, King Classic, my sister and stepmother have been in town.  Hope has had a lot of fun playing with them.  For Christmas dinner, King Classic and I made pierogies, kielbasa and scallops for dinner.  After spending the day playing with her new toys and relatives, Hope joined us in chowing down on pierogies and kielbasa.

Update: Hope was playing with her mother and tore away a little more of the mystery box’s wrapping.  But then she saw one of her blocks out of the corner of her eye and was distracted.

Anyway, I’m off tomorrow and it will be fun to spend more time with The Civee, sister and Hope.  Maybe soon Hope will be interested in more than one block at a time.

Here’s a little of Hope on Christmas morning:

It’s A Shame YouTube Didn’t Exist Back In ’95

Fifteen years ago, I was stuck overnight alone in the Pittsburgh airport.

If I had a video camera with me, I could’ve been a YouTube sensation (that is, if YouTube existed back in 1995).

While I didn’t dance or do ballet splits on the moving walkways, I did lay down on them and have other fun that would have been frowned upon after the TSA started making security changes.  And it’s kind of funny- I was waiting on a U.S. Air flight too.

While I wouldn’t ever want to be stuck in Pittsburgh again, it wasn’t that bad an experience (and I got a steak at Friday’s out of it).

I hope everyone gets where they’re going and has an awesome Christmas this year.

Who’s Faxin’ You Now? Who’s Dialing Your Car Phone?

Columbus is one of a handful of lucky cities to have hosted two Weezer concerts this year.  I went to both, a show at the State Fair and another free concert at a local college.  Both shows were good.  Unfortunately, the other cities with two concerts were stops on the Memories Tour, a two-night event where the band will play a setlist containing the complete Blue Album with a second setlist containing Pinkerton on back-to-back nights.

And if that’s not enough, Saturday night, in New York, they busted out this gem:

This was the first time Weezer played Jamie voluntarily since the mid-90s (a few years back, at an event where the band was accompanied by their audience, the audience started the song, pretty much forcing the band to finish it).

Did I mention that one of the Columbus shows was free?

I did?

Congratulations, New York, you win.

Thanks to allthingsweezer for the video.

We’re Still Here

I don’t know why, but it seems this time of year is always busier than any other time of year.

Even though the days are shorter, you would think that with more time spent indoors to avoid the below-freezing temperatures, you would get more done, but that’s not the case.  And the end of the year, thanks to Christmas, New Year’s and the social occasions associated with both mean there’s more to do with unforgiving deadlines looming.

Having a baby who’s on the verge of walking means I don’t get to spend as much time wasting time as I’d like.  I was surprised when I realized that my last entry was a week ago and I’ve only had two entries this whole month.

So yes, Hope is still growing, Weezer is doing their Memories tour (and fans are still waiting for Alone III) and LOST is still over.  Hope, The Civee and I are still here, enjoying life and getting ready for the events of the next few weeks.

In case I’m not able to make it back before then (I will try), have a great Christmas and an awesome New Year’s.

Will Weezer on the Simpsons be Perfectly Cromulent or Utterly Craptacular?

If you were to have told me ten years ago that Weezer would be guest starring on The Simpsons, I would have set my VCR months in advance and cleared my schedule for whatever Sunday night the episode aired.

This week, upon hearing the news that Weezer will be guest starring on a future episode of the Simpsons, I’m thinking that since The Simpsons airs during Hope’s bedtime routine, if I miss the initial broadcast, I can always catch it later on Hulu or somewhere else online.

My changed attitude reflects three things. First, (obviously) technology has totally changed the way most of us watch TV. Secondly, having a daughter has changed my priorities (as I type this with one hand, I’m feeding her with the other). And finally, I just don’t feel the way about new Simpsons as I did about the old Simpsons.

I think that Simpsons seasons four through eight are some of the best seasons of television ever produced.  There are whole episodes I can do line-by-line.  But after that, the show started getting full of itself.  Random guest starts (just for the sake of having guest stars), pointless storylines and a list of producers, co-producers, assistant producers and executive producers that lasted the whole first block turned the show from must see TV (for me) to well, I guess I’ll watch it if I have nothing better to do.  The last season in which I went out of my way to watch involved the family going to London, where Tony Blair greeted them at an airport, only to jet off on a rocket pack.  I’ve watched a few episodes since, and while I’ve enjoyed them, it hasn’t been enough to get me back every week.

Well, according to some tweets by band members, the members of Weezer are among the newest random guest stars.  If anything, their appearance will probably be more along the lines of each member gets one line rather than guest stars who are integrated into the episode.  I wouldn’t call Weezer a group of fringe musicians and while they don’t need an appearance on The Simpsons to embiggen their exposure, something like this can only help them.  Sure, I’ll watch, but I’m not sure that a Weezer appearance will get me to watch The Simpsons every week again.

Besides, 8:00 every night is Hope’s bedtime.

Apartment Living With Hope

So I noticed the other day that it’s been a while since I’ve last blogged (last month was pretty sparse on the blog entries).  And as some family members have informed me, it’s been more than a month since I’ve blogged about Hope.

That doesn’t mean that nothing is happening with our soon-to-be eight-month-old.  Quite the contrary.  The Civee and I have been so busy following her around and trying to keep her out of trouble that it feels like we haven’t had much time to sit back and brag about her.

In the past month, she’s been crawling all over the place, even managing to make her way up the stairs (with supervision).  She’s pulling herself up on couches, tables, chairs and people and can walk while holding on to things.  She can stand for a few seconds (but seems to fall whenever she realizes she’s standing without holding on to something).  She can wave (but not yet do the wave) and give high-fives.  The sounds she’s able to make have grown (and should grow even more in a few months once she’s had her palate surgery).  And her diet has expanded, now including:

  • Peas
  • Artichokes
  • Carrots
  • Pears
  • Avocados
  • Squash
  • Potatoes (sweet and normal)
  • Crackers
  • Cheerios
  • Ham
  • Pork
  • Turkey
  • Salmon
  • Parsnips
  • String Beans
  • Bananas

Perhaps most important (to The Civee and I at least) is that she falls asleep (or gets quiet) right as soon as we put her in her crib around 8 at night and doesn’t wake up until sometime after 4:30 the next morning.  Getting her to nap is still a chore, but we’re making progress.  (Having said that, we know her sleeping patterns will change tonight and we won’t get any sleep for a long time).

We’ve had to do a lot of childproofing and because we don’t have a lot of open space, it still feels like we have to keep an eye on her while she plays.  Hope doesn’t like her playpen, possibly because she knows she can’t get anywhere from inside.  But some of Hope’s relatives got a garage sale deal on a little tykes playset, which has helped out a lot.  The Civee and I call it her little apartment, and as you can see below, it does a great job of keeping her occupied: