Today is a very exciting day for Tiffany and I, as today Kylie took her first steps! She was able to take three consecutive steps without holding on to anyone or anything today, and she did it without falling! She was actually walking to Tiffany from her friend Erika. Later when they got home and I woke up, Tiffany showed me by having Kylie walk to me! It was incredible! They say that after a baby takes their first steps they rapidly progress into walking all on there own. Tiffany is both happy and sad at this; she is happy because it is amazing and a very big mile stone for Kylie, but she is also sad because Kylie is growing up so fast and walking marks the beginning of the toddler stage. Perhaps Kylie will be able to walk fully on her own by the time we go out to New York to visit Grandma and Grandpa, which would be truly awesome! Not to mention if she was able to walk on her own in her Aunt Sissy and Uncle Jason’s wedding. In any event, this is very exciting stuff!
Monthly Archives: March 2006
Census Information
Every so many years (I think it is 10) the government does a census to find out things like population, income, households, age and a bunch of other stuff. This information is eventually made public after all of the gathering is completed. But who really goes and checks it out? Well thanks to the new Web2.0 applications that have been emerging lately you can now view census information for a given area using an address. The site uses Google Maps and information from the Census Bureau to provide information. It is really kind of interesting to see some of the information about your surrounding area.
Finally…pictures
I just finished putting up Kylie’s nine month pictures. A little bit later than I wanted them to be up, but I have been pretty busy lately. Anyway they are up now, hopefully next month I can be closer to on time.
Cold War “Time Capsule”
National Geographic news is reporting that a “Time Capsule” has been found in the Brooklyn Bridge that was evidently built in preparation for the Cold War. It is not known if this was intended to be used as a fallout shelter, but it was full of previsions.
In a dank and dingy vault underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, a routine structural inspection last week unearthed a veritable Cold War time capsule, city officials announced this week.
The New York City bunker is stockpiled with decades-old provisions that were meant to be used after a nuclear attack.
City inspectors were astonished to find water containers, medical supplies, and hundreds of thousands of calorie-packed crackers.
The article is an interesting read and the find is a grim reminder of a bleak period in our not so distant past. In fact some of the items are even dated:
Two of the dates stamped on many of the boxes 1957 and 1962 hold particular significance. In 1957 the Soviets launched the Sputnik satellite. 1962 was the year of the Cuban missile crisis.
It is amazing to think that back then people even thought that shelters such as these would have aided in survival. Shelters were built to help keep out fallout, but never would have sustained in an actual blast. I am not sure if most people understood this back then as it is estimated “that there may have been 200,000 shelters created [in backyards].” Yet
In 1959 a federal report concluded that two hydrogen bombs dropped near the Brooklyn Bridge would kill at least 6.1 million people, the New York Times reported.
But at least back then we knew who are enemies were, not like now where terrorists strike while hiding behind innocent civilians including woman and children, my how times have changed.
Separation Anxiety
Tiffany subscribes to an email from babycenter.com and today it contained the following information:
If your baby seems more clingy than usual, she’s probably feeling separation anxiety” perfectly normal for a 9-month-old. It’s really a good sign, showing that she’s now able to distinguish between the familiar and the unfamiliar. She may refuse to open her arms to other adults, even ones she knows, and she may find bedtime distressing because it separates her from mom and dad. Separation anxiety usually peaks between 10 and 18 months and then gradually fades. With extra cuddling and reassurance from you, she’ll get through this stage and back to her social self.
This is good to know, and I am really happy that Tiffany gets these messages because they have provided some good information multiple times now. I like that the messages follow along with Kylie’s progression as far as age and tells us things to look for at these times. Something tells me my parents could have made good use of the internet and the information it can provide while I was a child.
New Theme
I finally got around to adding a new theme to the layout, which you have probably noticed as I have set it to the default theme. I really like it, not to sure why. Maybe just because it is dark and I tend to like dark things (the background on my desktop is solid black). I think it is easier on my eyes, and that produces less strain for me, which is a good thing. But if you don’t like it you can always pick a different one from the list on the right, although you will have to do that each time you view the blog. There is still a theme I have in mind to make, ok it is really just a modification of the other themes, and hopefully I will get around to doing it someday.
Yearly merit raise
It is hard to believe that I have been working for Medstat for a little over a year now; I have had so much going on this past year that the time has just flown by. Sometime last month was the official one year mark, I had meant to make a post acknowledging it, but with everything else going on that didn’t happen. So more to the point, somewhere around the end of January I filled out my yearly review and submitted for my supervisor’s review, which started off the process for yearly merit raises. This morning before I left work I was happy to find out that I am in fact getting a raise. While I am not going to go into detail as to the amount of the raise, I will say that I am both happy and slightly disappointed as to the amount of it. I am happy that I received a raise in the first place, as being rewarded is always a nice feeling. However, I was slightly disappointed at the amount of the raise; this is mainly due to my own hopes and, in a way, expectations. The amount I received was consistent with what the market and industries were forecasting, I was just hoping for more. But then again who doesn’t hope for more money? All in all I am happy with my raise though, and I still very much enjoy my job.
Wellness checkup
Kylie had her wellness checkup today and I am happy to announce that the doctor says she is in excellent condition. He said that her ear infection looks to be just about cleared up and we should finish out the medicine and all should be well. He was interested to know that as a kid I had some major ear infection issues and said this is something we will have to watch for in Kylie as well.
She is now weighing in at 18 pounds and 10 ounces and measuring 27 and 1/2 inches long (2 foot 3 and 1/2 inches tall). These are both within the 50th percentile for her age and the doctor said this is perfect. The circumference of her head is now 44.1cm (about 17.4 inches) and that measurement falls within the 60th percentile for her age group.
We asked the doctor what we could feed her safely as far as “grown up” food was concerned (mainly because certain people [a certain Aunt can be seen giving her a bread stick in one of the pictures to come* ] refuse to respect our wishes that she not receive anything other than her baby food). He stated that it was really up to us (and that other people should respect the wishes of the parent regardless) with the following exceptions:
- No whole milk or whole milk products, including ice cream.
- No strawberries or anything with strawberries (with the exception of Gerber items).
- No peanuts or anything made with peanuts or their oil.
Everything else is pretty much ok and at our discretion. I think the following months will be rather interesting as we experiment with what else to let her try.
* On a side note, why is it that people can not seem to respect the wishes of the child’s parent? As you will see in the picture once I post it, Kylie was given a bread stick by one of her Great Aunts. This was done at her Aunt’s bridal shower, which I was not at, while Tiffany was out of the room. So the Great Aunts (one took the picture) new we would not want this to happen and waited until they knew Tiffany was not around to stop it, and had the nerve to take a picture of it as well. I just don’t get it, why can’t people just respect our wishes?
9 months old
Kylie is 9 months old today and is still a very happy baby. Her ear infection does not seem to be bothering her as much now that she has been on the medication for a few days and she has been sleeping better as well. I think one cold that led to an ear infection in 9 months is pretty good.
Well this past month has been pretty interesting. We got to go visit Uncle Chris, Aunt Tracey and Cousin Delaney at their place, and Kylie absolutely loved her little cousin. I am hoping that they grow up to be very good friends, we just need to wait for the weather to break and then try to get together for as many play dates as possible.
This month has also found Kylie with her first toy obsession, so to speak. She has a certain toy, which we refer to as “Bug”, that she has decided to take everywhere with her. She will carry it around with her all day, bring it to bed with her, and has even had it in the bath a time or two. It has gotten to the point that we now use an extra pacifier clip to attach it to her when she is in her car seat in the car or riding in her stroller, so she can take it with her places without to much fear of losing it (the fear being mine and Tiffany’s, not Kylie’s).
Kylie also got the opportunity to try some honeydew melon this month, which she seemed to enjoy. We are looking forward to possibly introducing more food, but we will ask the doctor first at her appointment tomorrow.
I do not have the pictures ready yet for this month, I know I was doing so good too, but I will get them up as soon as I can. I am hoping to have them up by the weekend, as I am sure I won’t have a chance before then. Sorry Mom. 🙁
WordPress 2.0.2
I finally got around to upgrading to the new version of WordPress. I mainly did it for the security patches that were integrated into the new version, but I must admit that the new default plugins are nice. The integration of Akismet seems to be working out very nice, and the automatic backup feature is a plus.