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Thursday, January 31, 2002

Get it while it's cold! On Monday, Bryn came down with a slight fever, which meant that she got to spend the afternoon with Daddy. Having grown up in New England, he evidently has some strange ideas on the appropriate medical treatment for her condition, thinking:

Gosh, it's a gorgeous day out. Let's go drive up into the hills and check out the snow!

Yep, you read that right -- snow, right here (37° 24' 39" N, 122° 18' 18" W) in the Bay Area. Bryn was quite impressed too. She's not at all familiar with this white stuff, and positively hated how cold it was, but she sure did love knocking "hno" off those trees!

Nice photo, huh? Send your thanks to Mark Jordan, photographer for the Half Moon Bay Review (paid circulation 7,500), who used it for the cover story of this week's edition.

SNOW ON THE COAST? YOU BET! Above and at right, for two days this week, residents up and down the Coastside were thrown quite the weather curveball, as a cold winter front stormed into the Bay Area on Sunday and Monday. Although the rare event, in addition to prospects of snowball fights, sledding and snow-angels brought out the playful spirit in coastal residents, the storm also created havoc for many motorists. According to the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, drivers all over the Coastside were ill-prepared for the slippery conditions during the morning rush hour on Tuesday, and at least 16 cars got stuck on the icy Pescadero Creek Road.

Guess who's driving over there later on today to pick up a few paper copies. :-)
4:23:00 PM

Saturday, January 26, 2002

With all those new words to play with, the kids continue to combine them into cool phrases, such as:

1. "hahp boppy",
2. "my baby",
3. "ni-nite baby", and
4. "tank oo Bee".

We're especially impressed by #1, which both kids used today to request help getting sleeve-length puppets on their arms.
11:43:00 PM

Well, it's been a while since our last full-scale vocabulary update, so here are a few dozen gems for you.

From the "amm-ull" kingdom, we have:

• turtle,
• bite-uh (spider),
• meow,
• doggie,
• pig,
• feesh,
• duck,
• owl, and
• hoo (what the owl says).

From steps in the daily routine, we get:

• die-puh,
• bobby (belly or belly button),
• toe,
• ahm (arm),
• sock (keeps the toes warm),
• dack-ih (keeps the ahms warm),
• haht (keeps the head warm),
• bah-tit (pocket),
• buh-tee (button),
• pooh!! (handled round eating implement),
• bock-ee (steamed broccoli, a favorite),
• noo-noos (noodles, another fave),
• dirty (the "r" is often silent),
• nahp (nap), and
• ni-nite (it's bedtime now).

They're starting to get better with colors:

• boo,
• puh-pull,
• yeh-yow,
• etc.

Other miscellaneous words to round out the picture include:

• sissy (sister),
• Pau (Mommy's calling you!),
• in,
• down,
• piece (for puzzle pieces),
• choo-choo,
• bup-pee (puppet),
• pop (... goes the weasel), and
• watch.

And finally, we've really noticed how polite the kids have gotten. Not only are they great about asking for "hahp" (help), but in addition to the the aforementioned "peez!" (please), they're now very good about saying "tank oo" as well. Gosh, Bryn's even being wonderfully consistent about saying:

• nice-nice (sorry I just whaled on you)!

How can you beat that for politeness, huh? :-)
8:51:00 PM

Friday, January 25, 2002

OK, you can call us insufferably proud parents, but we have to admit it -- we're just plain thrilled to be hearing phrases like "hi daddy" and "hi mommy" as clear as a bell.
12:21:00 AM

Thursday, January 24, 2002

In a streak of independence, young Bryn decided this evening that she could drastically simplify the daily carseat ritual.

Typically, Kathy "corners" Bryn between her legs, the car, and the car door while putting Maya in her carseat. Then, after Maya's settled in, Kathy carries Bryn to the other side and puts her in, too. Today, however, Bryn:

• climbed into the car on Maya's side,
• crossed over to her side,
• climbed all the way up into her seat,
• stood on the seat,
• turned around to face the front of the car, and
• sat down.

All Kathy needed to do was fasten the belts. Bravo, Bryn!
11:51:00 PM

Monday, January 14, 2002

Next time we're in the mood for redwoods, sounds like we should check this out...
1:09:00 AM

Today's word of the day? "Fly!", overheard countless times this afternoon at Francis State Beach in Half Moon Bay, where Daddy and the kids escaped for a few hours to give Mommy extra quiet time to get some much-needed work done.

Although the frigid winds and pounding surf made for some stunning late-afternoon visuals, the kids were only mildly impressed by the ocean itself. However, they were riveted by two activities:

• stalking the wild seagull, and
• watching a single swooping stunt kite,

each of which prompted many exuberant utterances of the newly-aquired word in question.

PS: Of course, we must admit that not a single wow-wow passed unremarked, either. Wonder what the wow-wows thought of our leashes?

PPS: No, there won't be any pictures. You're kidding, right?
1:06:00 AM

Saturday, January 12, 2002

Oh, and we should also mention that the kids seem to be converging on a pronunciation of Bryn's name ... usually "Bee", with the occasional "Bih", and the ultra-rare "Bin".

Now if you were paranoid, you might think that the nickname "Bee" was a subtle dig at us, their parents. You see, we went into the hospital before they were born knowing that we:

• loved the names Maya and Bryn, but
• had no idea which baby would get which name.

That's not so bad, but we do have to admit that we sent the records clerk away for three days in a row before we made our final decision. Thus, the kids spent their first few days in the world known only as "baby A" and "baby B".

We'd love to be able to tell you that we spent those days carefully getting in touch with the true personalities of each child, to ensure that they'd wind up with a name that fit their inner being like a glove. In truth, though, we were far too sleep-deprived, addled, and otherwise exhausted by the whole birth-and-newborn experience for much of that. When it came time to make the final choice -- "Oh no, here comes that clerk again!" -- we used a much simpler technique to decide: Bryn starts with the letter "B", and Maya ends with the letter "A". (Yes, this brilliant insight only took us three days to discover.)

Of course, now we can't imagine each child with the other's name. To us, Bryn is so clearly a Bryn, and nobody but Maya could be Maya.
3:20:00 AM

Appearing on our main stage, for one night only...



... it's Maya, the one-girl band! In a feat of amazing dexterity, she can simultaneously perform on the following instruments (going clockwise, from the top):

• piccolo,
• trumpet,
• clarinet,
• bass drum, and
• high hat!

Sorry, no kazoo, though. Maybe next time.
3:13:00 AM

For the record, we've spotted more molars. At dinnertime tonight, Bryn was letting us know that she really really didn't want to start eating yet, which gave us a fine view of what seems to be her first one popping through on her lower left.

As mentioned previously, those sharp little incisors up front tend to discourage explorations further back in their mouths, so we'll never know what the first official day was. Oh well, at least we know to focus on brushing all the gums now.

PS: Note to self. Try to remember to swing her around upside-down tomorrow so we can check for molars on top, too.
2:12:00 AM

This evolving language thing keeps sneaking up on us. An all-too-frequent parental conversation around here goes something like:

"Hey, did she just say XXX?"
"Yeah, that's how she pronounces YYY."
"Really? How long has she been saying that?"
"I dunno, a while."
"Wow. How did I miss that?"

Anyhow, that's how we realized that two-word phrases have long since taken hold with the younger set. For example, as noted earlier both kids are constantly saying stuff like:

• "uh bit-ty" (formerly "uh bippy"),
• "uh bite", and
• "appy fee".

However, we just couldn't be sure they were using those utterances as phrases. For all we knew, they just thought of them as long multi-syllable words.

It wasn't until recently, when we broke up the umpteenth tussle over yet another favorite book -- they only have a laundry basket's worth to choose from, after all -- that we realized what they've been so "energetically" communicating for a while now:

• "I reet!" (no, I hold the book & Daddy reads)

To reinforce the point, all sorts of creative phrasing has been coming from Bryn, who's been mixing together her existing vocabulary to come up with gems like:

• "Yaya baybee" (her sister's doll),
• "Mommy reet" (pointing to Kathy's bookstand), and
• "bye-bye uppp" (the bird flew away).

Kinda makes you wonder what they'll blurt out next...
12:33:00 AM

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