Time Capsule

William 1 Comment

Kyllan and I are making a time capsule for Laurel’s 1st Birthday, to be opened when she graduates from high school. I have a few friends that have asked about contributing something and for suggestions. Just in case some of you are interested, those suggestions are below. We are adding items to the capsule at her party on the 21st through her actual birthday on the 24th.

  • A personal letter to Laurel
  • Photos of you and your family
  • Photos of local landmarks
  • A post card featuring your city
  • Your business card
  • Daily newspaper
  • Headlines and news articles
  • A magazine
  • Grocery or gas receipt
  • Catalog
  • Movie ticket stubs
  • Brochures
  • Technical information or specifications
  • Stamps
  • Car ad

No More Baby Steps

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This Friday Laurel seems to have decide that she prefers walking to crawling. Where as before she would take a few steps, fall, and then start crawling, over the weekend she started getting back up and immediately trying again. Well, she must have gotten the hang of things in the last 24 hours because now she is walking all over the house none stop. She is even walking places that she would crawl before. It is amazing how much she is changing as her 1st birthday approaches. She got rid of the helmet, got her ears pierced, and now is walking all over the place. Kyllan grabbed a short video on her iPhone earlier this evening.

Finally!

William 3 Comments

Finally! After months and months, this Friday the day finally arrived. Laurel has completed her cranial band treatment. No more helmet! That things has been acting like a cuteness reducer on my beautiful baby’s head for what feels like forever. We can now give her kisses on the forehead, place bows in her hair and hug her without reviving a headbutt! After only 72 hours, I honestly can’t even tell you where the band is. I think Kyllan hid it. Leading up to the final appointment I was threatening to melt it down, but she wants to hold on to it for sentimental reasons. We took some family photos without the band to celebrate the occasion. You can find them on my Flickr. The ones below have quickly grown to become two of my favorite photos.

Look! No Helmet!
The Codys

 

Father’s Day

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I thought someone else was going to make this post…

A week and a half ago I celebrated my first father’s day as a dad. It was odd. It felt like I was celebrating someone else’s birthday. It had always been a day about other people, and specifically not about me. Still, any excuse to dress Laurel up a little more than usual is an occasion worth  celebrating. We didn’t do anything big. Laurel and Kyllan took me out to brunch, they gave me a few gifts and we spent an evening of family time together. It was great to break our usual weekend routine and not worry about work around the house or the coming week.

I do think that next year Kyllan and I will skip the brunch on mother’s day and father’s day. On mother’s day we ate at a swanky hotel with live music. This place had long been at the top of our list of potential staycation hotels and we were excited when we saw they were doing brunch. Excited until we realized, all too late, that the reason the line at the buffet was so short was because they barely had any food. After 30 minutes in line I did manage to get half a waffle. I think Kyllan had chicken tortilla soup, without the chicken or tortilla. We won’t be going back. Ever. We decided to learn from our mistake and made a reservation at a restaurant for father’s day. We made a reservations at a place we had eaten once before and thought had the potential to become a favorite. Like most Sundays, we rushed out the door without breakfast in the morning, so by the time we reached the restaurant we were both hungry. After waiting a little too long to be seated, we ordered and waited for our food. And waited. And waited. And waited. Everyone around was still waiting for food an hour later. When the guy two tables away found the manager and explained that none of us had received our food, he was told “you need to stop worrying about everyone else and start worrying about yourself.” We found later that when the family asked their waiter if they could speak to the manager, the manager sent him back to the table with a comment card. It was one of the oddest dining experiences I’ve had. Next year I think we will just cook for one another.

There are plenty of photos on flickr. Just not any of the brunch.

1st Father's Day
My 1st Father's Day Card
Always a great gift
Best gift ever!

 

11 months old!

Kyllan Leave a comment

Dear Laurel,

Today you turned 11 months old and the countdown has begun to your first birthday.  You are growing so fast and it seems like new things are happening each day.  You are pulling up on everything and moving around pretty well.  You are standing on your own for several seconds before losing your balance and have even taken a few steps!!  There have only been 3 or 4 occasions where you have taken some steps, usually 3or 4 before you fall, but of course you refuse to walk once we grab the camera or video camera.  It definitely seems like you will start walking by your first birthday.  It’s very exciting to see you take your first steps, but it means you will be walking everywhere and getting into EVERYTHING!  You already crawl your way into trouble now.  You still love water bottles and have learned the location of the recycling bin, which has become a toy chest for you full or bottles and cardboard to play with.  Your eyes light up like you have discovered gold when you start pulling out the contents.  It’s quite hilarious.

You are beginning to discover table foods and you seem to like most foods.  Your favorite by far are Mum Mums, which are specifically made for babies your age.  They are rice rusks and taste like rice cakes or rice krispy treats (minus the sugar).  It’s a healthy snack, so I am glad you enjoy them so much.  You start going crazy for them at the sight of the package.  You start smacking your lips and raise your hands with excitement.  Even the people at daycare are surprised how much you enjoy them.  Just this past week we introduced Cheerios and you seem to really enjoy those also.  You are still learning to appreciate textures, but little by little have started tasting more foods.

Your personality is starting to come out a little bit more now.  You seem to be quite the comedian.  You are often laughing and smiling and you love people watching just like mommy.  You do not seem as quiet  as your daddy, but I guess that’s ok.  You enjoy music and often clap and bounce when you hear it.  You are a bit mischievous and pretend not to understand the word “no” when you are doing something you are not supposed to do like pulling on the blinds or messing with the tv components. When daddy or I say “no” in our stern voices and stern faces, you just smile and keep going.  I hope you understand no soon!

You have one more week until you get your Doc band off and we are very excited about that.  The only thing I am not excited about is you hitting your head on everything no that you don’t have anything to “protect” you from getting hurt, but I am sure you will quickly learn.  I just hope there are not too many bumps and bruises along the way.

You have not really starting saying any new words yet, but you are starting to vocalize more.  You definitely understand your name also, which is very cool.

So as I mentioned, the countdown begins to your first birthday.  We plan to have a small gathering at home with family and a few friends, but it will definitely be a memorable event.   Can’t wait to celebrate with you!!

Love you dearly!

Mommy

Assistant Professor

William Leave a comment

A good friend recently complained about my neglect of a certain announcement on the blog. I had every intention of announcing it on the blog and even took a picture of Laurel to go along with the announcement. (No, Laurel is not going to be a big sister. At least not anytime soon… As far as we know.) I was waiting until after I signed all of the official paper work, which I have now done, and then the end of the semester hit and things just got away from me. It hasn’t been a secret, but I just never got around to posting about it. Those I have spoken to about it know that I am very excited.

 

So, here it is:

Starting this fall I will be an Assistant Professor, a tenure track position, at the university I recently served at as an adjunct. I will be teaching Microbiology, Advanced Microbiology, Immunology, Molecular Biology and portions of General Biology. Additionally, I will have my own research lab, which I am in the process of setting up this summer. I am leaving out the name of the institution just in case we ever let the site get index by search engines again. I don’t want people who Google my name with the name of university to end up on the family blog. However, I think it is pretty clear below.

Excited for Daddy

Play Time

William 2 Comments

Here are a few photos I took during play time and a trip to the park this weekend. I tried to take a video of Laurel sliding around the edge of the table, but she ended up deciding to climb all over me instead. You can also how she ignores all the other toys laying out for water bottles. I did manage to get a video of her giggling on the swing at the park.

Fun on the Swing