I’m a Dad

The weatherman

I’m writing today to complain about the weatherman. Which weatherman? Well, all of them I guess. So far this season, they’ve hitting about 20% accuracy in predicting the rain. I could hit 50% by flipping a coin. In their defense, they’ve been pretty much right on with the temperature, fog, etc., but I can get that info by looking out my front door. What I want them to tell me is whether or not I should carry my umbrella to work today. So far, in that respect, they have failed miserably. It’s not forecast to rain until this weekend. I wonder what that water was that was falling on my head when I was out for a walk just now.

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No

Liam’s favorite word lately has been “no.” He says it so often I’m sure people think that’s all he hears at home. It’s not true – sometimes he hears “no, no,” “no, no buddy,” “get out of there,” “stop it you little…” Just kidding. He probably does hear “no” a lot because when he’s doing something that is ok, we don’t say anything, we just let him do it.

It’s funny the way he says “no” too. He doesn’t just say “no” the way adults do, it’s more of a drawn out kind of thing, like he’s added a few extra o’s at the end.

He says “no” more or less anytime we ask him a yes or no question. I never realized how entertaining this could be. Here is an example of a conversation I had with him just the other day.

Me: Hi buddy.
Liam: Dada
Me: Can I get a hug?
Liam: Noooo
Me: Don’t you like daddy?
Liam: Noooo
Me: Want a spanking instead?
Liam: Noooo
Me: How about a smoochie?
Liam: Noooo
Me: Is no the only thing you ever say?
Liam: Noooo
Me: Have you said yes lately?
Liam: Noooo
Me: Do you like this game?
Liam: Noooo

Sadly, he tires of the game long before I do.

He somehow recognizes the difference between yes/no questions and other types. When I say, “Liam where’s your sock/cup/toy/thing-just-dropped-in-the-dining-room?” He doesn’t answer, he looks around for the requested item and will usually, if he’s in the mood, retrieve it.

In other news, Jen wrote in “her blog”:http://www.aaronjen.org/blog/mom/ for the first time in a year. Yay Jenna! It’s good to have you back.

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Little Boy

I realized a couple of days ago that we no longer have a baby, we have a little boy. He’s walking pretty much everywhere now. It’s a drunken, stumbling sort of walking, but he’s walking. Watching him got me to wondering – what motivates a baby to walk? I can understand their desire to crawl, who wants to lie in one place all day every day? But the transition to walking is not as obvious to me. When walking, all his toys are on the floor and he has to sit down or try to bend over – and more likely than not fall down in the process – to get to his toys. Walking is more difficult to learn, lots of trial and error and falling and getting up only to fall again. When first learning to walk, crawling is actually faster than walking. Is it a desire to be like mom and dad that motivates aspiring toddlers? Or is it just some instinct to “get up and go?” Maybe it’s the fact that there are many more interesting things to get into when you’re standing up.

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Here I Come Daddy!

Liam was a walking little fool last night. There were several times when he took the initiative to let go of what or whoever he was holding onto and toddle forth to a new destination. Jen says that today he is going from sitting to standing without pulling up to something, and that’s new for him. Any day now he’s going to be my walking, running, getting into trouble little buddy and I can’t wait. Will try to get some pictures or video this evening.

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New Pictures

I posted up some pictures from over the summer. Enjoy. “Summer 2003 Pictures”:http://www.aaronjen.org/gallery/summer_03

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Hi

Liam is changing so much so fast, I feel if I don’t write everyday then I’m already falling behind. Once a week or so has passed, the idea of writing everything that has happened just becomes overwhelming. If you’ve been reading this journal for any length of time this is a familiar theme to you. I’m constantly making excuses for not updating regularly. If this journal is going to stand as a legacy to my son so he can know my thoughts and feeling during his infancy, then I’m letting him down too. I need to write just a little bit every day, just a few sentences letting everyone know what’s happening.

Liam has started saying, “Hi.” He crawls into a room and you know he’s coming because he starts saying “hi” before he even gets through the door, and he keeps saying it until you acknowledge his presence, sometime longer. But he doesn’t always say it, so if I try to play the “look what my boy can do” card, he invariably clams up.

He’s not quite walking yet, but he’s definitely close. He has taken a dozen or so steps on two or three occasions. Again, he won’t do it when we want him to – standing him up and coaxing him to walk simply induces an incurable case of “Spaghetti Legs” – but if the mood strikes him, and you’re not paying attention, he will let go of whatever he’s using to hold himself up and come toddling toward you, putting his hands out and diving ahead when he gets withing two or three steps of you.

The worst thing about being a dad is having to leave for work and be away from him for close to 11 hours a day. I really need to either win the lottery or find a job I can do from home. I honestly don’t know how other dads can stand to be away from their kids for so long. Could I be the exception to the rule? Do other dads just not love being a dad as much as I do?

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Photo Gallery Down

The photo gallery was having problems so I got rid of it. I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to replace it.

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Where did the Time Go?

Wow. I can’t believe it’s been a month since I last posted. I have thought of many things I’d like to write about, but the idea of sitting down and typing it all out just exhausts me sometimes. I have some excuses, want to hear ‘em? Good. First, I came back to work in the middle of August, part time at first, but now full time again. I’m also sharing my time with another branch who lost a position (I work for the State of CA – big budget problems.) So I work half my day at my regular desk and half my day at “my other” desk. My other desk is much busier and it’s all new to me, so there’s a pretty steep learning curve. When I get home I’m tired and I want to spend time with Liam. After he goes to bed, I try to get some learning done at sessions.edu, where I”m enrolled in the Master’s Certification program for graphic and web design.

So, sadly, the ideas I have that I want to write about just keep circling around in my head. Lots of stuff happening to write about, too: Liam finally took some steps, though he’s not walking yet; we spent 3 days in Monterey; Liam is making all kinds of new sounds; we found he has some allergies; my in-laws bought a yacht on the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta. See, all the things I have to write about are overwhelming me. Maybe if I just wrote about it, rather than whining about it, we’d all be much happier.

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more, more, more, moremoremoremore

The boy is an eating machine. I honestly can’t remember the last time he was actually full and refused food. Usually his plate just gets empty and we stop feeding him. We’re teaching him baby sign language using a program we found at “kindersigns”:http://www.kindersigns.com/index1.html. The first sign he learned, and so far pretty much the only, was the sign for “more.” To make the sign you put your thumb and fingers together like your pinching something and then you tap the finger-tips of each hand against the other. Once Liam figured out the association between the sign for more and him getting food, there was no stopping him.

He makes the sign and he says “buh” (with the ‘u’ sounding like “put”). Now anytime he sees food, smells food, hears food being prepared, or thinks about food he is immediately saying “buh” and putting his fingers together. A few days ago, I walked into the dining room holding a fork, Liam saw the fork and started signing and saying “buh, buh.” It’s really almost shocking how much the child eats. He went to a cousin’s birthday party this past weekend and my mother-in-law was surprised that he ate and ate and ate the entire time he was there: if he didn’t have food in his mouth he was signing and saying “buh,” or he was leaning toward food with his mouth wide open. When we were camping a couple of weekends ago, for breakfast he ate one serving of oatmeal, one whole banana, and 2 graham crackers. He was still asking for more but we were going out fishing so we just stopped feeding him.

For awhile I wasn’t sure where all the food was going. His mom will tell you that it is filling his diapers to overflowing. Then I decided to weigh him. Wow! At his 12 month appointment he weighed right around 21 pounds. That was two months ago. Now he weighs 26 pounds. I think it’s mostly in his chunky legs, but he’s a very solid little guy. Hard to believe he was so skinny when he was born. I think he’s making up for it now.

On an unrelated note, he got his second haircut today. He may now only weigh 25 pounds.

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Life Saving Data Recovery with PhotoRescue

We went camping last weekend and as usual we took pictures with our digital camera. After we got home I took the SmartMedia card out of the camera (a Fuji FinePix 2400) and looked at the pictures using the Simpletec card reader. The next morning Jen asked me what had become of the pictures. I told her they were still on the card and that I had left it in the card reader. She said they weren’t there. When I got home I discovered she was right, the pictures had disappeared. Even the default folders that the camera itself creates on the card were gone. Knowing that when files are “deleted” they aren’t necessarily gone forever, I went to my good friend google to find advice on how to retrieve the lost photos. What I discovered was even better.

I knew that there was software and services that would recover lost data, but I also knew that they are fairly expensive. Then, via my google search, I came across “PhotoRescue”:http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/index.htm and I was saved. I downloaded the trial version which will analyze your card and tell you if the photos are recoverable – to do the actual recovery you need the full registered version. But get this, the registered version is only $29!. I promptly registered the software and 5 minutes later all my lost pictures had been restored.

If you use a digital camera, don’t be without this utility.
“PhotoRescue”:http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/index.htm

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