“Stop meowing at my scarf!”, I shouted to the deaf cat.
In an otherwise empty apartment …
January 6th, 2012Level up: talking
January 5th, 201280′s just hitting the phase where she says new words every day. It’s exhilarating. It seems to surprise all of us. “Tail! Tail!”, she says, as she excitedly hurts the cat.
Wadsgreen love
January 4th, 2012Buying a = love for Jason
Paying the extra $5 for three-day delivery = irrational love for Jason
Venn diagram: New Years travel with a toddler
January 3rd, 2012
It was easier to draw than explain.
Whoa, GitHub!
December 27th, 2011Welcome to a new fork in my life — at the beginning of December, I started full-time work as a Support octocat at GitHub.com. I still haven’t come up with an easy way to describe GitHub for those not in the techy world.
I’ll bypass what it does, and tell you about what I’m doing there. Like any big company with a well-used website, GitHub gets a lot of questions. You know when you find the Help link, or you email support@thewebsiteyou’relookingat.com? I’m one of the people who answers all those questions — from “I lost my password” to “How do I remove a repo from a watched list?”. There are questions we get that I’m unable to answer, because my technical abilities just don’t encompass much more than some weak computer programming skills. BUT, what I am awesome at is replying to people’s questions in a way that makes them feel listened to, and cared for.
One of the awesome things about the GitHub community (and there is a community — GitHub lets anyone host their open-source code for free, so there are lots of people who work together to make awesome code for the betterment of everyone) is that most everyone is a software developer, so the collective sense of humor tends to skew towards Interne Nerd. “Like what?”, you ask.
When it was , someone quickly checked out this blog, noticed the photo of 80 and I on the bike, and altered it to . If you’re not familiar with the concept of a meme, . Suffice to say, I feel cozy and at home in this awesome GitHub world.
Tank Girl doula
November 3rd, 2011I’m using Spotify to pump music into my ears as I work. Lots of music is at my fingertips, and I’ve been using free association to choose what to listen to next. I found myself realizing I NEEDED to listen to the Tank Girl soundtrack (as it is my favorite movie of all time, or maybe second to Beetlejuice).
And then I remembered the time I was in the natal ward of the hospital, having given birth the previous day. Our post-partum doula came to meet us and we were chatting. I mentioned my favorite movie was Tank Girl, and she said, “Oh, I have a song on that soundtrack.”
THAT’S RIGHT. My post-partum doula was Tanya Donelly. I was already high on mama hormones, but that was just an awesome feeling. My daughter is being ushered into the world with two awesome parents, and a member of Belly. Perfect.
That’s Tanya modeling the mobi wrap, and me looking skeptical about the whole thing.
If you think Tanya’s music is great, you should see her be a doula. She rocks.
Our bike setup
September 16th, 2011
We got a hand-me-down iBert bike seat (thaaaaaank you A+S+J).
Most people biking with a kid have the seat that attached to the back of the bike. There’s also the trailer that sits on it’s own wheels, down on the ground behind the bike. Our front-attached bike seat is much rarer. It’s a newer design, and there are grumblings that it’s not as safe — though I disagree.
I’m not an expert. I’m not sure who would be the most qualified to speak to the safety of each bike seat, but I can give you my opinions. I’ve been in bike crashes before, and if my bike slides out from under me I’m going to have my hands on my handlebars and be able to have a small amount of control of the front of the bike, and help guide it down. If it’s a head-over-handlebars, I don’t know if either seat is going to be better or worse. That’s where wearing a helmet, long pants, and shoes is important.
In summary, the iBert is the best commuting or street-biking seat style.
The other option I’d consider is the bike trailer:
The safety issue for me is having a trailer down where cars can’t see it. An upside to this kind of trailer is that there’s lots of room (you can put two kids in there), there’s protection against the elements, and if you were to lose your balance they’d be low to the ground already.
The trailer is a great option if you’re on bike trails, or otherwise not in traffic.
The most popular bike seat I’ve seen is the rear-attached seat:
I’m not a fan of this seat. It puts the kid level with your ass, so their main view is blocked. It’s also hard to hear them, and you can’t see them without turning around and looking down (which is hard to do and dangerous while biking). They do have a higher back, providing more support for wobbly heads. The downside is some models don’t account for the child wearing a helmet, which means the child’s head is pushed forward and they can’t rest comfortably.
You can get the iBert on Amazon for something like $90, which is the same price as the mid-range rear-attached seat, so I can heartily suggest the iBert.
Here’s a video of Jason and 80 in the seat:
We make our own holidays
September 9th, 2011Three-day weekends make traveling with a baby a lot more feasible, because you have more time to enjoy your destination between travelings.
National holidays work against you, though, because everyone else is on the road, train or plane.
Thus, we stayed home for Labor Day weekend, and are using a precious vacation day to make our own three-day weekend now. We’ve scheduled our driving to coincide with 80′s nap (see fig. 1), which works really well for all of us.
We packed and had a leisurely breakfast this morning, hopped in the car, and 80 will wake up in two hours when we get to the ferry (which will take us to an island for maximum vacationing). 80 will be asleep for the boring car ride, then awake for the boat ride. Hopefully this works out as well as I have smugly planned.
Fig. 1
Brushing teeth
August 31st, 2011, originally uploaded by .
Abby came to visit, and spent one glorious, shining day. 80 took to her right away, naturally. Between the two of them, the amount of effervescence and happy-go-luckiness is more than the state of Nevada.
Via Flickr:
80 was thrilled to find out Abby also brushes her teeth in the morning, and insisted on helping.
Milestone rescinded
August 24th, 2011
I take back what I said yesterday. See what bragging gets me?