the pumpkin outfit

One of the child's grandmothers has remarked on the dearth of recent baby pictures so here I am on the case. Photo credits in all cases go to Richard D'Amato.

Grandpa Nick has been of exceptionally good value lately, taking the kid for many walks in the beautiful autumn weather. In addition to painting the dining room while I was working.


Grey's mom Jill was a lifesaver in the first week after we were home from the hospital. She was a huge help with all the new logistics and provided a lot of moral support to clueless new parents.


Me, I've been faking my way through fatherhood with about as much success as I've been faking it as a high school teacher. In both cases there are plenty of things to enjoy.


G is continuing her recovery. She's having a hard time with a muscle in her leg which is making it tough to get around and even sit comfortably. The doctor promises slow improvement. 

today we are a week old

This one reminds me of one of my favorite Pogues albums.


This expression is a little more ambiguous.


We are having a nice day around the house. I am in my hole making a test for kinematics.

on the road again

And hey, guess what's on the road again? Believe it or not, my life has been so full and so exciting that the rehabilitation of my ultimate dream car has not made it to the headlines.


Thanks to Pete of Midnight Auto the old bomb is back online and breathing fire. Don't look for a link to Pete's website, he operates out of a barn in Sussex County. High tech communications for him is a phone with buttons instead of dial. But he can sure tune an engine.

Also major props to my dad and uncle who made the whole thing possible while I was finding a job, buying a house, rewriting curricula, etc.

The mini is now kitted like a real racecar with an engine that should be a lot more reliable than the one that it came with. I will get the tech specs up at some point, but suffice it to say that it is no longer a fast car. It's a seriously fast car. It's a little monster in fact.

These pics are from a car playdate with my father's 59 Alfa Giulietta.


Here's our backyard from the perspective of the garage doors.


Yes, we are doing what we can for the ecology of the planet. We all know that humans will not address the disasters caused by petroleum abuse until the world has reached a crisis point. We try to help bring that crisis point closer so that we can all get to work.

down in the thinkhole

Most of the pictures from Labor Day will never be seen on the blog of course, but this one is kind of special and perfectly suitable for public appreciation, I think. We weren't planning to document the labor and delivery but our doula brought her camera and snapped some wonderful shots. Ladies, when you visit you can ask G for the whole slideshow. Guys, we can go do something else.


Lots of these pictures will be useful in years to come as behaviour-shaping tools for our precious offspring. "Play quietly or we will show you pictures of your birth!"

Should be loads of fun on prom night when he brings his date around, too.

No seriously, the pictures are wonderful and miraculous but I find them too emotional to look at very often.

It's 8:30am on Saturday morning and I am sitting in my basement office (my thinkhole) with the boy in his car seat at my feet. I turned on the dehumidifer next to him and he is sleeping very peacefully with the hum in the warm basement air.

We all had a rough night last night, not much sleep. G has very kindly been letting me sleep on the couch on school nights, and last night I tried to return the favor and let her get some extra sleep, but the boy had lots of complex needs that we did not understand well. He rarely slept for more than a few minutes at a time. I emptied four diapers and bounced him a lot but still there was not much rest had by anyone.

But I've been down here since 6am and the boy is sleeping sweetly and I hope G is getting some well-deserved z's in the meantime.

Rough week at school. I have turned kinematics into a baffling ordeal for most of my students. But they are all very happy for our new little family, it is very touching. It makes me feel bad when I can't give my students an interesting and well-organized lesson, but I suppose it's an accomplishment if we just get through the day together and make some human connections.

four days old

There are a few updated photos on the online album.

It's 4am and I am going back to work today so I am up to make some lessons. Of course the boy has had me up for a while before this. So far I am coping fine but let's see how things are going around 8th period today.

It's been great to be home with G and the boy and I am sad to be leaving for the day. But G's mom is here so she will be OK and the boy has been a lot happier now that his milk supply has come on for real.

We've been receiving notes and good wishes from everybody. I hope I get a chance to follow up on these renewed contacts since it has made me so happy to hear from folks I was on the verge of losing touch with.

Well, I've got a cup of coffee and the cats are circling around my keyboard. I am ready to start the day's work, better get to it. Thanks for all the nice comments from emailers and visitors to the blog here, it really means a lot to us!

Peter Casmir D'Amato

Peter Casmir D'Amato 10/6/2006

Born by natural delivery 7:30pm on Friday 6 October. 9 pounds 0 ounces, 21.5 inches long. Mom and baby healthy and happy after 22 hours of labor.

Peter Casmir D'Amato

Oct 8, 2006 - 8 Photos

a week behind

This is the only picture of both of us (all of us?) from last weekend's baby shower. Thanks to Gretchen for the snap.

Last Saturday was G's blessing ceremony at our house, followed by a trad baby shower at Maple Ave on Sunday. Traditional in the D'Amato sense meaning tons of food, and a million things that people knitted. I think my mom made the blanket in the picture, and Aunt Zoe made the perfect bear. There is a little dinosaur outfit and Gretchen's mom Joan sent a Starfleet uniform. Watch this space for a picture as soon as he's big enough to fit in it.

I made it through another week of school. I was not the world's most interesting teacher this week, but to be honest how fascinating can kinematics be? Most of the time I had a good time with the students, which is what makes the biggest difference to me.

cat moment

Ilsa, Weehawken, 2001. Never got brushed enough.

 

old and unfocused

No, I was talking about me but I guess it describes this picture too. I should be grading exams but instead I am going through pictures with the new version of Picasa, which is great.

I survived a full week at school and taught a complete unit on Introduction to Force and Motion. I thought my test was too easy but most students found it challenging enough.

This weekend G is having her blessing party and baby shower, and tonight I am clearing out of the house so as not to interrupt the flow of yin energies with my raging yang.


The pic is of Shona, Kate, Owen, and Chris on the steps outside our old house in Weehawken. I guess this must've been in 2000 or so. I wish it was better focused. Even more, I hope we all get to do something similar together in the future!

G is still smaller than most RV's and she is being very brave. I am keeping both vehicles full of gas, and I am starting to worry about my substitute lesson plans.

Back to school

OK so I have survived 3 half-days and three full days so far. Only about 177 to go til summer. It's been mostly great but some days are very hard. I am mostly settled into a routine. Up at 4-4:30 to make lessons and then school from 7am-4pm or so.

Time with the kids is great. Unless I don't challenge them enough, or challenge them too much. I have tried to make something interesting to see or touch in every lesson. The first day I did a cool thing with a vaccuum cleaner, which I will describe at some point. Then I had a cool holograph thing. Then I spent a day on my rollerblades. All these things were big hits.
Today I didn't have any "hooks" and it was tough. It never occurred to me that the customers would not be just as interested in the boring ol' nuts and bolts of actually doing physics.

Well, everyone tells me that this is completely normal and the only way to improve is with experience. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

What else is going on? G is very big. Friday we get the baby turned around, hopefully, so that we can go ahead with a normal birth. At the moment he's still right-way-up which is not the, uh, right way. No big worries but a little anxiety.

Otherwise, what's exciting with us? We've joined mainstream American culture again now that Dr House MD is showing every Wednesday on the internet. We just finished watching our download of Hex and we enjoyed that so much we are considered starting Buffy.

Yes, that's as much excitement as we can handle at the moment. Other than the whole new house, new job, heavily pregnant thing.

at home in bernardsville

I know the internet has been holding its collective breath in anticipation of our next post, so at last here it is: We are living in our new home in Bernardsville.

Life is nuts, I got no good pictures, and I will tell you more soon.

a good day for movers is a bad day for cats

We're homeowners! Yesterday we jumped through the final set of hoops and were rewarded with keys to 5 Center St. We had a family picnic on the deck, but then went back to 15 Maple for one more night at the apartment. We both woke up at about 2am and were up the remainder of the night, enjoying a heady cocktail of excitement and anxiety.

G has been a grownup before but this is my first house. I bought a drill. Our plan is to move some major pieces of furniture and essentials today, enough so we can camp out til we move the rest. We may have to do without internet service until Tuesday. (At what point did TCP/IP become about as necessary as running water?)

I can hardly believe we managed to close this deal in "only" 30 days. I dunno what it's like in other states or nations, but the process included: hiring a lawyer, a home inspection, oil tank search, title search, site survey, power of attorney documents, tax returns, masons, electricians, builders, hazard insurance, flood insurance, mortgage insurance, liability insurance, promissory notes, lock-in forms, bank wires, certified checks, and escrow accounts.

During the same time period we bought a new car, sold a used car, completed a 75-page Honors Physics curriculum, and went on three out-of-state vacations. And, of course, did further work on the new D'Amato under development: far from the least of our accomplishments.

What kept me awake last night was the thought that the last 30 days will probably look like a picnic compared to the next 30 days.

I got my schedule at Pequannock High and it's great! I am teaching all physics classes with only two preps. They have been 100% on everything they promised and I still really like the people I will be working with. Unfortunately I will be in three different classrooms, and there is not much equipment and no computers. This means I will have to rely on raw effort in many places where I might have used props or technology.

G has been holding up very well although she is often tired and uncomfortable now. The move will be hard on her, not least because she will want to do much more than she is capable of these days.

My dad is also hors de combat after taking a drill bit in the arm and picking up what looks like a nasty infection. Hopefully the pills will fix it so that he doesn't have to go to the hospital.

Allright, that's enough rambling for now. I should be packing but I will let G sleep a little longer before we start disassembling our life at Maple Ave. It will be sad to leave our home here, even though we know it's time to move on.

hot

It's really just too damn hot for pregnant people to be outside but G could not pass up a few sociable minutes on the deck with the rest of the family. Of course, the fact that mom brought home a load of subs from the Chatham Sandwich Shop may have had something to do with the decision.

With a combination of ice bag, water spray, and foot pool it was just about bearable for a little while.

We had a busy day trying to come to an agreement with the sellers about repairs to our new house. I never thought I would become so involved with a chimney before. I suppose this is my new life as a homeowner.

you are going to play with me now, right?

Perhaps you don't understand. See, I have the string right here. Do that thing you do with your monkey hands.

in the meantime

This is a picture of our larger cat. She has a problem. She is no longer interested in any form of interaction except playing with the bootlace my mom gave her. We used to sit together, rub heads, have a relationship. Now she doesn't want anything but string. If I offer her any form of attention, she runs away and stands by her string and gives me a look like this one. As if to say, "if you are interested in spending time with me, I want string."


Here is a picture of the back of the house which we hope will soon be ours.


It's hot and boring in Mendham tonight and G plans to blow off her breastfeeding class. We are discussing the relative merits of a trip to Aunt Pat's pool or the local movie theater. Not sure if there is anything worth watching. Any suggestions?

progress report: nothing to report

Furiously getting nowhere in particular at the moment, so nothing exciting to report. This phase of the house purchase is a flurry of documents among contractors, lawyers, usurers, insurers, inlaws, realtors, etc. We are hoping to come to some agreement about the repairs needed to the house, and then we hope we can move ahead with our closing on the 10th.

There are only two major problems with the house: the chimney needs repointing, and the front porch needs to be reinforced before someone falls through the soft spot. Pretty good for a 100 year old house. I know that's nothing to many of you overseas types but it's a big deal around here.

Grey is well and truly into her third trimester now. She's still happy and beautiful but the tiredness is back and moving around is more of a production than ever before. At least she's been sleeping better lately, which is a mercy for everyone.

Fleet news: We're still trying to sell the Focus, not as much action on that front as I would have expected. I've been so busy with the house that I've been unable to work on the Mini but there are recent unconfirmed reports of progress from the reclusive lunatic that we've engaged to install the new engine.

space for all the babies

Well today we had the new house inspected. The results were very encouraging. The front porch needs some repair and so does the chimney, but everything else is minor. The place is in great shape for an old house. G wanted me to post these pictures of the nursery, which, in a shocking coincidence, is decorated in exactly the same way that we would have decorated it.



Our inorganic dependents will also be cossetted in a lovely detached garage.


So we're pysched. And today I had words with the current man of the house, and he assures me that the entire lawn can be mowed in less than 30 minutes. Right on.

not just a new haircut

Below you can see a picture of Grey and her new summertime-and-I'm-pregnant haircut!


In the background you might be able to see a Scion xB. This is the special 2006 Limited Edition in Envy Green. This is Grey's new car. She is very, very pleased with it. It was hard to find the cool green one. In the end we bought in on ebay. Some may be surprised that D'Amato's have bought a Japanese car, but there are two responses to this: (1) the lady who made the purchasing decision is not genetically a D'Amato, and (2) it's so well crafted that we might be reconsidering the family policy in the future.

So, we are almost ready to be a family. We have something practical and yet still cool to drive around in and clean cheerios out of.

Also, more big news! The lawyers have signed off on our contract and we are scheduled to close on our new house on August 10! At this point there are many fewer things that could go wrong with the whole enterprise. Tomorrow we have the house inspection and after that we should have any idea if there are other things to worry about.

And, I am almost complete with the partial deforestation that is a mortgage application in New Jersey.

Anyway, thanks for the good wishes. We would like to take you for a ride in our cool new car

house pics

I thought I just posted these thumbnails of the house we are trying to buy, but I haven't seen my deathless prose show up on the blog yet so I am beginning to fear it's lost to the ages. Damn.

This is the house we are trying to buy. We finished the first part, with the realtors, and have started the part with the lawyers. Then it's the part with the bankers and the inspectors, then the realtors again, then the lawyers. Then we might get to live there. Hopefully before school starts and I turn into a wage slave again in September.

Here's some pics. The lovely Kate gave me the idea to use this little photo collage.


We love the house and the town is going to be great. We have a guest room and space for children, so you gotta come visit when you can. There's a nice little town center within walking distance and a train that will take you to big ol' NYC mere steps away. Very civilized.

Speaking of houses, today we got the greatest old-fashioned paper postcard with a snapshot of the wonderful cottage that Ally and Mr B got for themselves in beautiful north Wales. I am awfully happy for them, and tonight I will daydream about shipping my child(ren) off to visit with them some summer, years from now. 

so much excitement

Bit of a catch-up post here... last week we went camping again at Lackawanna state park. We spent three nights out in the woods over the holiday weekend. You might not think that a pregnant lady would sleep all that well on a foam mattress in a 19' RV but she did and we had a great time. I finally got to make some progress on The Confusion. What a great book.

This is a great park, there's a big lake and we rented a boat to paddle around. I think we saw the same family of ducklings we met there on Memorial Day weekend. Back then they were puffball-size and now they are about pigeon-sized.

There's also a great big swimming pool. It's round, about 100 feet across. It's shallow at the edges and deeper in the middle, so there is a lot of area of little kids and some space for floating grownups too. It was a great family atmosphere, and wow do I sound like a grownup here.

The other great thing about the park was the world's most unlikely Snack Bar. In addition to the standard repertoire of burgers, dogs, and ice cream this place had a full Italian menu cooked from scratch on the premises. Marinara sauce made from actual tomatoes, zuppa di pesce, and a killer eggplant parmagiana. I guess the man who has the concession from the park has ambitions beyond the hot dog trade. I say it's a triumph of the free market.

Oh and the other little snippet of news is that we are in negotiations to buy a house in Bernardsville. They have accepted our offer and now the legal fun begins. Nice house. Nice location. More details coming soon!