Yeah, yeah, it's been a while. As the weather gets warmer, I'm sure more photos will start cropping up on here. Outside trips are always more interesting than the kids sitting/laying in a bassinet or bouncy seat in the living room.
You would think I would know how to use this camera by now, too. I think I finally found a setting that will take reasonably clear pictures in lower light settings. It all has to do with white balance. Turn that "auto" setting off!
We bought The Incredibles on DVD while we were out last night. It's a good flick if you haven't seen it. Typical Pixar, which is to say, "good stuff". The Jack-Jack Attack short on the extras disk is pretty good. It's about what happens to the babysitter when the rest of the family leaves Jack-Jack at home to chastise/rescue Mr. Incredible.
Berta told Abby that this DVD is a "real" copy of the movie, not the BitTorrent mpeg version that I've been playing on the mod-chipped XBox all this time. I followed up her comment by saying, "Yeah, and this one probably doesn't say 'Property of Disney and Pixar - No Not Duplicate'." But Berta was quick to reply, "This one probably does say, 'Do not duplicate'." Come to think of it, it probably says "Property of Disney and Pixar" too, so what exactly did I buy here?
We subsequently discussed Abby's super powers. After some thought, I've concluded that her super powers are many:
I think she would simply prefer to be Dash and run around at super-fast speed, which she often demonstrates inside the house. She has also renamed Riley as "Jack-Jack".
Speaking of Riley, he was up squeaking all night. "Squeaking" is my codeword for "making noises like live pigs above a fire pit". He wouldn't be calmed but for a few minutes at a time, and the rest of the time he was just wailing. He didn't want food or need changed and even holding him in his favorite position (upright, his chin on your shoulder) wouldn't satiate him like it normally does.
Did it have something to do with his shots at the doctor's office?
Have I mentioned that Riley's huge? He's in the 90th percentile for his age (4 months), size-wise. He weighs 17lbs 1 oz and is 24 inches tall. (This height measurement might not be accurate - I must consult with Berta.) He already doesn't fit very well in his car seat, so we'll probably be shopping for a new one of those soon enough.
I find this percentile method of comparison amusing. If everyone I talk to is in the 90th percentile, then why isn't the system horribly skewed?
Anyway, all we need for Riley to do now is start igniting himself, passing through walls, teleporting, or shooting beams from his eyes. That could make the nighttime squeaking worse than it is. There's always worse, right?
Abby made up a song this morning. It's just a strange series of words sung to a rhythm repeatedly. We were singing it in the car on the way to school this morning.
I suspected that she had heard it somewhere before and was just repeating it because it sounded so familiar to me, but I asked her some questions and it seems like she synthesized at least some of it herself.
Basically, the words are:
Moo-moo minnie manna mahnna choo.
I hesitate to solo it, but maybe Abby and I can record a rendition later today so that we can keep this memory of what things were like now.
In the car she was talking about sharing this new song with her friends, which is how Abby is - very sharing. But when I dropped her off, she kept trying to get Maddie's attention, and Maddie was only interested in playing with the plastic farm animals. In fact, after Abby tried singing her song to Maddie a couple of times, Maddie picked up a giant spider and started singing "Itsy Bitsy Spider". This made me very sad for Abby, who was so enthusiastic to share her creativity with her friend, and then had her fun abruptly shot down for a plastic spider and a worn out ditty.
I see a future for Abby that parallels my life. Having few friends because nobody really understands her. The constant battle between being alone while staying true to who you are and shredding your soul just so you can have a couple friends who don't think you're too eccentric to hang out with.
It's days like these when I just want to take Abby out of school and go somewhere fun and tell her that I'll be her friend.
Valerie wrote about kid's TV shows over at her site, and I was going to interject in her comments, but this got pretty long. Besides that, it seems like I'm always a big downer over there, and didn't want my Mr. Rogers info to bring everyone off their high.
Anyhow, concerning the Crayola factory that Mr. Rogers is famous for putting on display: I've actually been inside the Binney and Smith factory in Easton for a high-school fieldtrip.
It was a gifted class trip - we thought of creative ways to get the school to sponsor trips to some crazy places like the Pierce-DuPont house at Longwood Gardens, the Resorts casino in Atlantic City, the Wharton Esherick museum. We went on this one to voice our concern over the retirement of a certain color from the 64-pack of crayons.
The factory is much the same as it was on Mr.Rogers' Neighborhood, except for they make markers now. And when I say "factory" I mean the actual production factory, not the pay-to-play amusement area they've built since they've closed the factory to outsiders like something out of a Roald Dahl novel.
We had a complete tour of the marker nib-making area and the place where they pour the wax for the crayons. We even got to product-test some of their (at the time) new washable markers, which are now de-facto for parents everywhere. And there was a pile of take-home art supplies for everyone. Of course, we had our say in front of the B&S executives about the loss of the Raw Umber color from the crayon pack, and they smiled and agreed that the loss was great, but the new colors were here to stay. Oh, well, so much for drawing trees.
Did you know that they are also responsible for making Silly Putty? That section of the plant was Top Secret and off-limits. Weird.
Anyway, I wanted to mention that Mr.Rogers may have been a nice guy on TV, but I know some people from Pittsburgh (his hometown) who were excited to have met him before he died, and they have all called him quite foul things after parting from the experience.
I get the same impression of Levar Burton, who was a host for Reading Rainbow back in the day. You know, Geordie from Star Trek.
Abby really likes Lazytown, and I must say that it's not the worst show on TV. Our current favorite show is the Backyardigans. She can't stop watching them - it's almost a daily demand. Oh, and also Bear in the Big Blue House.
She keeps playing the DVD in her computer. I can't tell if this is a display of independence because she can do it herself, or if she just really likes Bear. Still, it's distracting when I'm trying to think at my desk across the room and Bear is singing the Bear Cha-Cha-Cha in the background.
"Cha-cha-cha... Ooh-la-la..."
Has anyone noticed that the frequency of thumb sucking in our daughter is diminishing somewhat? I saw her do it yesterday and thought that it was an odd thing that I hadn't seen her do in a while. I'll have to keep closer track, but I think she might give it up soon.
Man, she's getting big.