Just a test.
Archive for the ‘Sammy’ Category
Halloween dry run
Thursday, October 29th, 2009First bicycle ride for Sammy
Sunday, September 20th, 2009Sam the Bear
Friday, July 10th, 2009His aunt Erin gave Sammy this bear for Christmas in 2007, along with a book about him, confirming the bear in question really is Sam the Bear. Sammy the boy and Sam the Bear are inseparable. One time we went on a trip and didn’t bring Sam the Bear. There won’t be a second time.
A graph by Sammy
Wednesday, June 10th, 2009
Sammy puts toy dinosaurs in the water test video
Saturday, March 14th, 2009A second test video, in which Sammy dunks three toy dinosaurs in water. They are expected to expand to 600% size over the course of several days. (“Just add water!” it says on the package — and then wait three days, they don’t use the big font size about that part.)
This one was shot with the Mino Flip HD as well (see previous post), using the tripod. Here I have problems keeping Sammy in frame, there appear to be a couple of audio sync issues, and the low light is a little more problematic. However, for a device smaller than a pack of cards, dealing with the fact that it was dusk in a room with no lights, it’s not too bad. As I learn to use the zoom and position the thing properly, I expect the quality to improve.
Tell me about Fall
Friday, December 12th, 2008
For Barbara
Friday, December 12th, 2008My Aunt Barbara called me last week. She told me she checks this blog every day, hoping to see a picture of Sammy or Sophie. I can’t help but feel I’ve been letting her down lately.
So, this is for you, Barbara…
Not the greatest shot, I know. (The one I liked best is next.) But this is the one Sammy wanted to give you.
Knock Knock
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008Sammy, age 3, wrote this.
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Owls.
Owls who?
No, daddy! Owls hoot, not who.
Sammy the gourmand
Monday, July 28th, 2008Most days, the reports from our daycare (The Children’s Pre-School Center, of Palo Alto) are fairly matter of fact. Each child in the class gets a mention, and the activities are pretty much what you’d expect (story book readings, playing in the yard, learning about animals and numbers and letters).
One report, from last Tuesday, was definitely an eyebrow-raiser, however:
Sammy knows a lot of yummy foods that his Mommy and Daddy prepare at home. He named them all. They were pizza, omelet, carrot pizza, shark soup, cheese cake, and vegetable pizza. I asked him how to make omelet. He said, “You just need to make it with egg.” Wow, how smart he is.
Notable is that Sammy really doesn’t like pizza, so we don’t make it or serve it very often. And while we’re as hippy-Californian as most people in the Bay Area, there’s no way we’d make carrot pizza. That sounds awful. Furthermore, I don’t recall ever giving him cheesecake. Not even on Mother’s day at The Cheesecake Factory.
Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time we made omelets.
Plus shark soup? Is that like shark fin’s soup? That’s just bizarre. Isn’t it illegal?
Good job, Sammy, for not talking about hot dogs and grilled cheese like the other kids. For your third birthday in September, how about some carrot pizza?
Instant Sammy blackmail material
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008Sammy is two-and-three-quarters. His preschool sends a daily update of what the kids do each day. A few moments ago I received this update:
While we were waiting for lunch Lucy, Sammy, Lindsey, Sabrina and Alex saw the Princesses gowns hanging on the hooks on the wall. They asked for help to put them on. Rebecca brought the music to the back room and walla! all the princessess including “Princess Sammy” started to dance to the music.
I am so hoping they took pictures — because if so, I’m quite certain it’ll come in handy when he’s 18:
Sammy-at-18: Dad, can I borrow the car? Some friends are coming over and we’re going to a movie.
Crotchety-old-57-year-old-me: Sure, if you mow the lawn first.
Sammy: No way! I did that last week. Plus you already said I could borrow it.
Me: Fine. But when your friends get here, I’m going to show them The Picture.
Sammy: Say, dad, did you want both the front AND the back lawns mowed?
Variegated miscellany
Saturday, May 24th, 2008Today I attended Jack and Andy’s fifth birthday party at Hoover park, and watched Bob get pelted by water balloons and shaving-cream-filled sponges by ten ecstatic kids. (How I escaped that fate, given I’m a co-godparent? Dunno! But I am oh so grateful.) Aunt Beth made two cakes, one a race car, and the other a chocolate volcano with lava made from melted orange lifesavers. Amazingly beautiful cakes.
* * *
While I was feting twins, Kimi took Sammy and Sophie to the Hiller Airplane Museum, which never gets old for Sammy.
Me: Sammy, what did you see at the airplane museum today?
Sammy: Airplanes.
Me: What kind of airplanes?
Sammy: Old airplanes. With wings!
* * *
Yesterday was Sophie’s eight month birthday. She babbles incessantly now, has the tiniest of teeth buds coming in, gives a smile to everyone, likes to wave somewhat erratically at people, and can roll over, but seems to show no interest in crawling. We’ve started the ferberizing to break her of her 3 a.m. feedings, and so far so good; she slept through the night for the last two nights.
* * *
Yesterday was also photo day at Sammy and Sophie’s school, and in addition, teachers’ lunch out for Sophie’s class. This semi-annual event asks the parents to donate their time and a little money for the teachers to get an escape, while parents come in during the lunch hour to watch the kids. There are eight kids in Sophie’s class, ranging from four months to almost a year old. For the noon to 1 shift where I helped out, we had five parents. When we first started our shift, the teachers had left us well-fed, happy, clean-diapered kids. Within about, oh, ten minutes, half of the kids were bawling, and most had dirty diapers. We parents just looked at each other and laughed. What a profoundly difficult job. The two teachers handle four infants each, with aplomb. We parents were having difficulty with less than two each. Things soon settled down though, and the hour ended up flying by.
* * *
While the photographers set up outside the school and we lined the kids up to have their individual and class photos taken, smoke and haze filled the sky from the nearby Santa Cruz mountains fire. Yesterday morning over 3,400 acres had burned, dozens of homes were destroyed, and the fire was less than 1% contained. Even though we were fifty miles away, kids rubbed their eyes and coughed; and the strange air reminded me of a smell from my childhood, in London: walking down the street in winter evenings, with seemingly every house having a fireplace with a blazing wood fire, smoke pouring out of chimneys, getting on your clothes.
Chim chimminee, chim chiminee, chim chim cheroo.
I was very glad to see the unexpected and unseasonable light rain today, giving the firefighters the break they needed to control the mountain blaze. The dull weather was not so much fun for five-year-olds attending a birthday party, but everything in life is a trade-off.
* * *
Earlier in the week, I caught Speed Racer and then snuck in to a showing of Prince Caspian. It took me about thirty minutes to catch on to Speed Racer’s vibe, but once I did, I loved it. I think this is a vastly underrated movie. The critical smackdown is somewhat intense; I guess most of the critics never watched the original cartoon, because I think the movie catches the goofy tone of the movie pretty much perfectly. And the visuals do not disappoint, exceeding even the hype.
Prince Caspian, on the other hand, is a dreadful bore, missing all spark of charm and whimsy of the first Narnia movie, laying the religious theme on over-thick, and really missing the point of the book (which I read probably twenty times before I was 12).
Speed Racer is over two hours but feels like 60 minutes. Prince Caspian is over two hours but feels like three or four.
* * *
Rob and I have been playing a new card game, Race for the Galaxy (which Steve and Larry introduced me to when they visited a couple of months ago). We play whenever we get a chance. I love this game. It’s a bit fiddly to learn, and the fact that you’re not directly interacting with your opponents takes a few plays before you understand how you can actually have a huge effect on your opponents’ play — but it’s such a short and intense game, I find myself even dreaming about it. Get this game!
* * *
Kimi gave me the new Flight of the Conchords CD for my birthday (among a lot of other CDs, thanks sweetie!). Although I loved the first season of the HBO show, I had thought some of the songs were hit or miss. But I was able to really listen to the lyrics (thanks to the iPhone making it easier for me to carry around music), and now I love all the songs. Buy this CD. Please mister, you won’t regret it.
* * *
There’s a friends-and-family deal at TiVo right now for a TiVo HD. If you’re a friend or family and want a new HD DVR, drop me an e-mail.
* * *
While I do aim to generate content, rather than pass along content from elsewhere, here’s a link. I have to say I applaud these two for their convictions and avocation.
* * *
Kimi: “Your blog is so random. No one likes all the content. No one!”
Guilty — variegated miscellany is what this is. I do tend to be all over the place. Everything’s connected, somehow. Just think though — there are half of the categories listed on the right not even touched by this post. But comments are what I like best, so let me know what you’d like to see more of, and less of.
An excruciating update
Tuesday, May 6th, 2008Tough weekend.
On Thursday last week, one of Sammy’s teacher’s reported that Sammy had a condition that I will not describe in detail (this being a family blog). Friday it continued, even causing an accident on the floor at one point. But then he was better. Friday night, Kimi gave me a break and I snuck off to see Iron Man (thoughts on that later). Saturday morning, Sammy woke me up at 5:45 and I felt miserable, my stomach in knots, weak, in pain. I soon discovered I was suffering from that same unmentionable condition as Sammy.
Now, previously, Kimi had worried that handling the burden of watching the kids mostly solo (while she recovered from the back surgery of two weeks ago) was too much for me, but I dismissed her concerns. After all, I had handled the first weekend all right, right?
(I had taken Sammy and Sophie to Happy Hollow on Saturday, and we went out all day Sunday as well. For once, work on Monday felt more relaxing than the weekend…)
But now Kimi was right, the lack of sleep and Sammy’s bug had caught up with me, and I hadn’t arranged any backup. I was too exhausted to call around much, but our usual fallbacks for help with kid care were either out of town or dealing with their own kids. So, Kimi, despite recovering from back surgery, stepped up while I recuperated, and John and Yvonne helped by taking Kimi and Sophie out to a rummage sale in the morning while Sophie and I slept. Then Kimi took Sophie in the afternoon while Sammy and I napped. By the late afternoon, I finally had started to feel better. I didn’t eat a thing all day. On Sunday, I was still a bit weak, and still dealing with the condition, but was mostly better. (The only thing I ate on Sunday was half a rice cracker.)
Kimi was now exhausted, however; still, she kept Sophie while I took Sammy for an abbreviated version of our usual morning cafe-and-Farmer’s-Market routine, picking up some food for a barbecue with Rob and Kelly at noon. (Which was fun.) We all took it easy that afternoon.
Alas, the bug that had bit Sammy and me then got to Kimi at around four in the morning on Monday. Only she got it much worse than either of us. After I dropped the kids off at daycare Monday morning, her condition had got much worse. She was alternating between being unable to get warm from chills and unable to cool down from hot flashes. She wasn’t able to keep food or even water down, and was in so much pain that Urgent Care was the only option. They saw us right away, which gave me hope, but then it was so inefficient: First a nurse took her vitals. Then wait 20 minutes in the room. Then another nurse for more vitals. Wait 20 more minutes. Doctor finally comes in, asks all the same questions. He gets called away (it is an emergency room after all). Wait 20 more minutes. He comes back, resumes exam. Decides it’s the same stomach bug. Writes an order for anti-nausea shot. Wait 20 minutes. Nurse comes in to give shot. Wait 20 more minutes. Doctor comes back to re-examine. Writes a prescription for anti-cramping. Kimi convinces him she needs a pain-killer, so he grudgingly orders some vicodin. Wait 20 minutes. Wait 20 more minutes. Meanwhile Kimi is moaning and shivering from the pain (although no longer nauseous). I go looking for a nurse for the pain. Finally she arrives, Kimi takes the pill, we get a wheelchair, off to the pharmacy, then finally to the temporary home so she can sleep. I’m still a bit weak (plus it’s been weeks since the kids have slept through the night — the 3am and 4am back-to-back wakeups are really getting to me), so I grab a couple of hours before it’s time to get the kids. So much for work on Monday.
Today we’re all better, finally, so that’s a relief. And both kids slept through the night last night (well, at least they did after 10pm — before that, not so much). And even better, Sophie slept in until 6:30am and Sammy until 7am, so everyone had eight hours.
Twenty-four hour stomach flu bugs — put them on your list of things to avoid.
* * *
This next part I wrote a week ago but never got around to publishing.
* * *
Last Wednesday, Kimi and I checked in with our contractor to see how the house reconstruction was going. They’ve been at work for a week, and in that time have removed all the carpet and old flooring down to the foundation (revealing far more cracks and patchwork than we had imagined even pessimistically), knocked open the walls we’re removing, and removed the shower in the master bath where they was extensive dry rot and termite damage.
Sammy was with us, because he was in a weepy mood and didn’t want to be left with the sitter; he seemed to take it all in stride, asking (as he frequently does these days), “What’s that!?” with great interest as each barely-recognizable-room was explored.
It’s been a bit challenging to live in one big room for the past few weeks as Kimi recovers from her back surgery on April 22. The good news is that Kimi’s back pain is gone, and she’s recovering from the surgery well (after being initially underprescribed for painkillers). She’s still supposed to be taking far more bed rest than she actually does, and for another week she’s not allowed to drive, and for five more weeks no bending, twisting, or lifting anything more than 8 pounds.
* * *
I took a fair number of pictures from the Happy Hollow expedition on Saturday, April 26. It’s conceivable I might actually load them and publish a couple. Suffice to say a great variety of happy experiences were enjoined. Except for me keeping him out long past his normal nap time, which caused quite a host of difficulties for the rest of the day.
* * *
Kimi: [reading from a new book about Africa, picked up at Sunday's rummage sale]: This is a picture of a pygmy hippopotamus. Can you believe there used to be hippos that small? There used to be a lot of them in Madagascar, but now they’re all gone.
Sammy: Now they’re pretend.
* * *
Update, 12:40am Wednesday: Sophie’s turn. She just went through three cycles of throw-up/clean-up and is now out of clean pajamas. She seems to be in good spirits, despite all the vomit. She is now on my lap wrapped in a towel, while I wait to see if she throws up a fourth time, babbling happy noises that sound suspiciously like “uh-oh.”
Life’s ups and downs
Sunday, May 4th, 2008
Sammy plays WoW
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008For the last few months, I’ve not been playing very much World of Warcraft — typically 3-6 hours per week and that’s it. That changed last Tuesday — they’ve released some new content, and I’ve been playing a bit more than normal. On Sunday, while Sophie was napping, I played a few minutes with Sammy on my lap, and explained to him a bit of what was going on.
He really likes watching my character fly around on his Netherwing Drake (Sammy calls it a bird), and while I was doing a couple of quick daily quests, he narrated a bit of what he could see. He doesn’t distinguish between my character and me — both are just “Daddy” to him.
“Now Daddy’s fishing.” (I was.)
“Daddy’s getting that flower. He’s getting all of them!” (Picking herbs.)
“Daddy’s giving the big fish to that man.” (True, turn-in of the World’s Biggest Mudfish.)
“He’s mailing those boots to mommy. Mommy will like them!” (Mailing some magic boots to a bank alt for disenchanting.)
“Those are clouds.” (Yup.)
“Now daddy’s at the farmer’s market. He’s buying fruit!” (Not quite, I was selling junk and buying candles in the Shattrath Lower City refugee camp.)
“That’s the sun going down.”
“Daddy’s flying to Hawaii!” (Taking the flight path from Silvermoon to the Isle of Quel’Danas. Every island is Hawaii to him right now, since we’ve been talking about his trip to Hawaii last year and looking at Hawaii pictures.)
Having a ball
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
While John and Yvonne were over for dinner (and to catch up on The Sarah Connor Chronicles with me), Sammy decided he was tired of grown-ups talking, and wanted to read a book. But what was a bit mystifying to me is that he wanted to read to his ball, telling us the ball wanted to know how bread was made.
Tummy Time
Friday, January 25th, 2008
Eat a Lollipop
Thursday, January 24th, 2008
Eat Some Yogurt
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008
Watch the skies
Monday, January 14th, 2008
Sammy-speak
Sunday, January 13th, 2008I mentioned previously that Sammy is rhyming a lot, and he’s continuing to do that.
In addition, he’s started using the word “badger” as a sort of dummy word to fill in for any vocabulary that he’s forgotten or doesn’t know. Why “badger”? Search me. In usage, it’s somewhat random, almost like how the Smurfs would use the word “smurf” sprinkled haphazardly in their sentences.
(I was a linguistics major in college — 20 years ago — and I know there’s probably a good linguistics term for this, but even after browsing through a bunch of linguistics vocab sites, I couldn’t find the right one. It’s probably some form of metonymy or synecdoche, but only because everything is.)
Example:
“What’s this that the bear is wearing?” (pointing to a picture of a bear wearing a red scarf in a picture book that Phil and Erin gave him for Christmas)
“A nice badger.”
His speech is usually clear and he almost always uses the right word if he knows it, but every now and then he makes an amusing mistake. Just now Kimi’s Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Tom stopped by to drop off some toys that Sammy had left at their house last night. Kimi noted Tom’s haircut. Since Sammy likes to be included in the conversation, Sammy pointed out that “I got a haircut too.” (Weeks ago.) So Jennifer asked, “Where did you get a haircut?” Sammy: “At the barber…(pause)…cue.”
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