i guess he's ours

Saturday we brought the boy to Northlandz. "What is Northlandz?" you ask. Northlandz is a 1-mile walk through one man's model train fantasy. The display also includes a doll collection, an organ collection and some "fine art." In short, it wants to be House on the Rock when it grows up.

Now, as a rule, young Peter has NO interest in standing still. He wants to be walked, strolled, bounced or danced. But he was held in rapt attention by this display -- so much so that if they sold a year’s pass, I’d get one.

This sort of display is not for everyone, but Chris and I love this stuff! We spent much of our honeymoon collecting places like this. The fact that Peter is interested shows, if there was any doubt, that he’s ours.

li' bubba

It got up to 40 degrees F this Sunday. So, I took the boy into the yard to model some of his new duds.

Hat is courtesy of Grandpa Nick and jacket from Uncle Dairy. Overalls by Pat Charney and shirt from the Rob & Molly collection. And tho you cannot see them, shoes by Kim Kash.

I've started putting shoes on him because he's learned to kick his socks off. I just turn around and the socks are gone. So, in the interest of not having to buy more socks, he's got to wear shoes.

He'd wear nothing at all if I would let him.

Sigh. Maybe we'll move back to Florida...

Click here for more pics.

big week

I am blogging from my thinkhole this morning. A wiggling baby is on my lap, a jealous cat is giving me the hairy eyeball, and my main computer is churning its way through a third attempt at a windows reinstall. Yes, the computer with all my schoolwork etc on it. It crapped out midweek for reasons obscure and slightly worrying. Any other week it would have been a complete disaster but the kids at school had just begun to present their biography projects.

My work and data are safe but this means hours and hours lost to reconfiguration. On the other hand, this is a good opportunity for me to start training my son. If he can do XP reinstalls by the time he's 6 I can start making money off him.

I've started teaching my weekly class down at Rutgers, Demonstration and Technology for Science Education. That's been fun but preparation is a lot of work. I'm trying to get the students to do as much of it as possible -- conveniently in line with modern pedagogical best practice, don't you know.

I made this logo for our class website, which I am very proud of, based on the Rutgers football logo of which we've been seeing a lot lately.


Check out our class website if you are desperately bored sometime. Click on the logo to visit dtse.org.

kid video

watch out, grandparents

Here are some pics from January that'll have you reaching for your hankies. Click on the picture to see more. This is a raw pile of pictures, non-grandparents are advised to wait for the highlights.


Or click here for a slideshow in your browser.

more sling fathering

There are not many posts on this blog about mothering, because mothering happens all the time. Mothering happens instead of blog posting I guess. Fathers make posts on this blog when they have schoolwork to avoid. Or to be charitable, when father is warming up for schoolwork.

This is how the boy has been going off to sleep at the end of the day lately. I put him around my neck after dinner and walk laps until he falls asleep. I feel proud of myself for being such a useful father, but then of course G takes care of him for the next eight hours or so.

om for the holidays

As many of our blog reader are aware, the friendly and progressive community of Greenbelt MD somehow exists happily just outside the event horizon of the moral black hole that is our nation's capital.

Otherwise the locals are fortunate for many reasons, but the latest good thing about Greenbelt is that our friend Kim has founded a studio of yoga there! She and husband Michael have been great pals of ours for ages. We just wanted to give a shout out to them and wish them the best of success and satisfaction with the new undertaking.

You can see more about what they are up to at GreenbeltOm.com

december favorites

December Faves

A short list of baby pictures from last month. Gotta keep the grandmothers up to date!

Click on the picture to see the rest.

back to the grind

I'm back in my work-hole in the early hours of the morning, preparing my first lessons on work and energy. The child is asleep in his carseat by my feet, where I hope he will remain for another hour until I have to get in the shower.

G has been up a lot at night to feed him lately. He was sleeping soundly through the night but we seem to have entered a growth spurt which means more feeding. Although G can top him up without getting out of bed, constant feeding means the difference between deep sleep and a night of dozing. It's been hard on her, but she continues with patience and loving kindness. Thank crap for moms.

(oops, a noise comes from the basket at my feet. cross your fingers.)

We all had a great break together, our little family and our extended family and friends. I even felt closer to my absent friends across the big pond, thanks to Christmas cards and blog posts. For me it was a much needed recharge after an extremely busy few months.

The other teachers tell me that this time of year is easier. Even though we are facing an uninterrupted stretch of school, they say that by now you know your students and they know you and you should be in a more comfortable groove -- if not a rut. I'm starting with a positive attitude, and I'm going to try to be a little easier on myself and on my customers in the weeks to come.

Here's a couple of random kid pics from the vacation. In this one he's wearing the blue bear outfit from Aunt Pat. Not sure what he is looking so alert about, but these days he is getting a lot better at seeing what's going on.



We sat him on the floor and propped him up and he sat, very wobbly, for much longer than we would have expected. He seemed to enjoy the new perspective. I think the pose gives him a certain air of mysterious wisdom.



Well, the basket remains quiet so your crossed fingers must have helped. I gotta get back to work. Grey wants to write more posts so keep your eyes peeled if you're a blog watcher.

Love and good wishes from me, and the rest of the family, to everyone else going back to the real world today.