Pictures
drorzel | March 26, 2013The Pip is getting really into books these days, and SteelyKid has been into them for a good while now (she's four-and-a-half, after all...). At some point last week, she asked about my writing, so I got down a copy of How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog and showed her her name in the dedication, which she was tickled by (she now refers to it as "my book"). Encouraged by this, I read a bit to them both-- the dog dialogue from the first chapter, which started life as this old blog post-- doing the silly dog voice. SteelyKid giggled in the right places, more or less, and The Pip listened very…
drorzel | March 22, 2013OK, here's my idea: We put a leash on Emmy and we put her up on top of this rock that's on top of all these other rocks. Then she jumps down into these petals. so she'll be safe. And you pull on the leash so she jumps down a little faster.
I'm down here on the bottom. This is my arm, holding this petal. And this is my face. I'm holding the petal for Emmy to jump down into the petals, so she'll be safe.
The plan for tomorrow
The Story of How Do Grasshoppers Run Away?
Once upon a time there was a grasshopper, and a grasshopper friend. They went to a lake to get a drink, and one of the…
drorzel | March 19, 2013OK, Daddy, guess what? Here's my idea. We get a stick of wood and we put a timer on it, then we get a big rock and put it on the end. We have to put feet on the big rock, so it can stand on the stick.
Then when the rain comes down, down, down, we push really hard on the stick. We have to do a really big push, then the rock will go up in the air and come down, and the mountain will grow. Then we measure how much weight it took, and how much damage it did when it hit the ground. With the timer. Which isn't a timer, it's a scale.
That's what we're going to do tomorrow!
SteelyKid's plan for…
drorzel | March 8, 2013WordPress's upload is broken, so here's a link to the photo: SteelyKid and The Pip.
February was... not a good month, in a lot of ways. Let's leave it at that. One of the unfortunate consequences of this was that I went just about the entire month without even taking any pictures of the kids, let along posting any of them here. this was, obviously, a shocking dereliction of duty both as a parent and a blogger.
So, as partial compensation, here's a composite of two pictures (which I'll use as both the "featured image" and insert below, so those reading via RSS can see it without clicking…
drorzel | January 27, 2013It's been a good while since I did any Cute Kid Blogging, due to excessive busy-ness. There's big news among the younger residents of Chateau Steelypips, though: SteelyKid lost one of her front teeth the other day:
SteelyKid showing off her missing tooth
That gap? Wasn't there on Friday morning. Lest you think we're horrible people who let her run headfirst into a pole or something, while we were surprised to have one come loose this early, she's within the normal age range for losing baby teeth. Just barely, but then she got teeth really early, too-- she had eight at eight months old. So I…
drorzel | December 15, 2012It was a long and irritating week, for reasons that I can't discuss on the blog, and just when it finally looked like there might be some motion in a positive direction, I got a call from day care saying that SteelyKid had a fever and needed to be picked up immediately. But, on the bright side, it was a nice day today, and SteelyKid rallied long enough to help pick out and decorate a Christmas tree:
Chateau Steelypips Christmas Tree 2012
So, there's your happy thought for the weekend. The Pip is sort of puzzled as to why there's suddenly an evergreen in the library, and he's not too keen on…
drorzel | November 7, 2012...and The Pip will be five. Happy birthday, Little Dude!
Oh, yeah, there was also some kind of election. In which a bunch of crazy people lost, and a guy I played rugby with was elected a US Senator. Which is a great way to celebrate the one-year anniversary of this momentous occasion.
And here's the "featured image" pasted into the post, for those reading via RSS. It's a grainy cell-phone picture from a couple of days ago, when Grandma and Grandpa brought up a big birthday balloon:
It's hard to be a little dude with a great big balloon.
Here's a somewhat better picture, of The Pip…
drorzel | September 18, 2012There are a bunch of physics stories that I'd sort of like to write about, but don't have time for, and politics is oscillating between "darkly hilarious" and "indescribably depressing," so that's best left alone. So, here's some cute kid pictures instead.
SteelyKid has lately taken to telling all and sundry "This is my daddy. He's a scientist." She also sometimes adds "I'm a scientist, too!" so it seemed appropriate to go out with her and Do A Science.
As previously mentioned, she got a bunch of Backyard Safari gear from my aunt and uncle, which included a safari vest and a collapsible mesh…
drorzel | May 2, 2012I've gotten really bad about posting pictures of the kids, but we got the official school picture proofs today, featuring a smiling SteelyKid and an insouciant Pip:
Both pictures pretty accurately reflect them at this stage, which is kind of nice. SteelyKid's kind of camera-averse at the moment, and it apparently took some doing to get her to agree to sit for this, so I'm surprised it came out this well. The Pip doesn't have as much ability to fuss about having his picture taken, so I've got some shots of him in his play gym:
He's a happy and active little dude, and when he figures out how…
drorzel | April 8, 2012Today is Easter Sunday, which we celebrated in the manner of my people, by chasing soap bubbles around the backyard:
OK, that's not an actual tradition, but it was a beautiful day today, and SteelyKid got a big bottle of bubble stuff from her great-grandmother, so it seemed like the right thing to do. So she and Bodie (my parents' yellow Lab, seen in the above photo) frolicked around the yard until she was so tired that she slept all the way home. Everybody wins with Easter bubbles.
Happy Easter if you're someone who celebrates it, or at least won't get into a snit about being wished well…
drorzel | March 16, 2012While I was editing and posting the pictures for last night's family blogging, SteelyKid came in and said "Daddy, we watched [indistinct name] today, and they created their own story on the show. But I don't know how to do that."
"Sure you do, honey," I said. "You create stories all the time. You were telling me a story last night, something about bears in a cave. You can create stories if you want to."
That cheered her up, and after a little bit of negotiation about who was going to write on what, she created the following story:
That's a SpongeBob activity book that she got from I-don't-…
drorzel | March 15, 2012Yesterday was "Pi Day" (3-14, in the American style of writing dates), and while I personally find it kind of silly, The Pip took it to heart, using it as the occasion for his first rotation of π radians about his long axis. That is, he rolled from his back onto his stomach. Which is both good and bad: good, because it's a milestone, bad because now we can't leave him unattended on any flat, elevated surfaces.
Anyway, to mark the occasion, here's a picture of the two kids. With Appa for scale, even.
He's not in the porta-crib very often-- he prefers to be held so that he can "stand" on his…
drorzel | March 9, 2012I had planned to catch up on blogging a bunch of things this afternoon, but I decided I needed a nap more than I needed to pump up the blog traffic. So, here's a cute-baby picture to make up for it:
This is The Pip, trying to figure out what's up with the little dude in the mirror in his portable crib. He had his four-month check-up this morning, and got a clean bill of health, other than some mild concern that he's a skinny little dude-- his weight has gone up, but down in percentile terms. SteelyKid had the same thing happen when she was little, and she's a solidly built preschooler these…
drorzel | March 1, 2012I'm driving down back roads through Niskayuna and Colonie, making a big pointless circle. Because we had a slightly rough morning, and I don't want to wake up The Pip, who fell asleep in his car seat on the way home from lunch:
And every time we come to a stop sign or red light, I reach into the back to make sure he's still breathing.
That's where I'm at these days. How's your Thursday?
drorzel | February 16, 2012One of SteelyKid's favorite bedtimes reads is Good Night, Gorilla, which is very short and mostly pictures. We've read it about a million times, so to mix things up (and further my goal of convincing her that I'm a blithering idiot), I'll give it different titles when I hold it up before reading it. She giggles and correct me, and it's all very heartwarming and cute.
Tonight, I held it up and declared "This is... Konnichiwa, Kangaroo."
"No, Daddy, it's Good Night, Gorilla."
"Oh, my mistake. It's Bonsoir, Baboon."
"No, Daddy," she said, "Bonsoir Baboon is a movie. With a baboon, and the…
drorzel | February 12, 2012We send SteelyKid to preschool at the Jewish Community Center in Schenectady, because when we looked at day care programs back in the day, they had the one we liked best. This is a mixed blessing in a number of ways-- they close for a lot of religious holidays when nothing else closes, creating some awkwardness with child care and our jobs. On the plus side, though, it's a chance to learn about another culture, and as an extra bonus, most of what we learn is filtered through SteelyKid, making it extra cute.
For example, on the way home Friday, she was chattering quietly to herself in the back…
drorzel | February 2, 2012It's now officially February, and the release date for How to Teach Relativity to Your Dog is only a few weeks off-- the official release date is Feb. 28. Of course, I've got a copy already:
If you would like a copy of your very own, you can either wait until the release, or take part in this shameless publicity stunt: The second-ever Dog Physics Photo Contest!
Last time around, we did a LOLEmmy contest for a bound galley proof of the first book. This time, I'm giving away a signed copy of the finished book, so we'll go for something a little trickier: I've picked three pictures from my…
drorzel | January 21, 2012I've been really bad about documenting The Pip's growth here. The annoying thing is, I've actually taken pictures of him over the last couple of weeks, but I've been too busy to edit and post them. If there's one thing transcontinental flights are good for, though, it's providing you with time to do stuff like this. So, here are some photos of The Pip from the last few weeks, starting with one of this first shots of him smiling:
This is a couple of weeks old, already, and he's much more expressive now. Here's an Appa-for-scale shot from the same day:
And here's an Appa-for-scale shot from…
drorzel | January 8, 2012Lots of people ask how SteelyKid is taking to having a younger sibling. Well, judge for yourself:
This is during the Giants-Falcons playoff game this afternoon, but it's pretty typical. When both SteelyKid and The Pip are home, she's always running over to give him kisses and hugs and chatter at him. She's super excited to be a big sister, and that hasn't changed.
Better yet, a few minutes after that first picture, she looked like this:
And, in fact, she's still snoring cutely. We'll wake her up soonish, but for now, we're enjoying the break from constant, exhausting motion.
Hope you and…