Pictures
drorzel | November 27, 2009Here's yesterday's turkey a la Good Eats, a little while after coming out of the oven:
As in past years, we brined it overnight. Unlike past years, we didn't have any of the plastic roasting bags, so instead we took advantage of the spiffy new roasting pan (a Christmas gift after the liquid turkey incident) and the convection roast setting on our oven. A 21-lb turkey cooked in 2hrs, and came out pretty darn tasty.
The rest of the menu: funeral potatoes (recipe here), steamed broccoli and green beans, and stuffing. The stuffing is probably my favorite part. How much do I like stuffing? I made…
drorzel | November 26, 2009We hosted Thanksgiving this year, and SteelyKid was the life of the party. When she saw Grandpa make the unwise decision to sit down on the couch with a glass of red wine, she came running, and spilled it all over him. To make up for it, she graciously decided to include him in this week's Baby Blogging:
(He borrowed dry clothes from me.)
We also took advantage of having everyone here to get a Baby Blogging picture with four generations in it:
Actually, we took a bunch, as Kate was trying to get one where SteelyKid wasn't partially obscrued by her red dog. This was probably the best of them…
drorzel | November 22, 2009Look! How to Teach Physics to Your Dog is a real book:
Emmy says, very seriously, "You will buy a copy, won't you?"
Of course, like everything else in this house, SteelyKid had to grab a copy:
She whipped through to the last page pretty fast:
Emmy says "What'd you think, human puppy?"
SteelyKid says "If I knew how to read, Daddy's book would be my favorite book ever. People who can read should definitely buy it."
You heard the kid and the dog...
drorzel | November 19, 2009Actually, this ought to be "Wednesday Morning Baby Blogging," as that's when the picture was taken. Kate and I are going to New York City for the weekend, though, and SteelyKid is spending the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa in Scenic Whitney Point. So, you get an early picture, posted late:
This was taken just before we bundled her off to day care Wednesday. Kate's playing the "got your red dog" game-- for some reason, when you pop the pacifier out of SteelyKid's mouth, she finds it hilarious. Provided that you give it back pretty quickly, that is...
drorzel | November 12, 2009An indignant SteelyKid says "What do you mean I can't go to day care? I'm perfectly healthy!"
She is, indeed, doing much better. Last night, I wasn't sure you'd get any Baby Blogging at all, because snot and fever don't make for a photogenic baby. She's waddling around in more or less her usual state at the moment, though, and has decided that if she can't go to day care, she'll climb into my lap and learn about photography:
This makes me feel significantly less guilty about leaving town this afternoon. Not guilt-free, mind, but significantly less guilty.
drorzel | November 5, 2009For this week's Baby Blogging, we have a shot of Kate helping SteelyKid with her new favorite game:
It's called "Take off my shoes, and put them back on." She can play this for hours. It would be even cuter if she could do the putting on and taking off herself, but alas, she's still kind of unclear on the solidity of objects, and doesn't really grasp that her feet can only get into the shoes from the open end. She'll get there, though.
SteelyKid officially moved out of the infant room at day care this week. She's now in the next age/ development group, termed "Waddlers" (an intermediate step…
drorzel | October 31, 2009SteelyKid says "Daddy, I can help with your puppet show. Look at this awesome dragon puppet Grandma got me!"
In this, you can also see a bit of the Halloween outfit her great-grandmother gave her. There are a couple of pictures below the fold that show it more clearly:
Here's one of her obligingly looking at the camera:
I kind of prefer this one where she's grinning toothily at Kate, just out of the frame on the left:
Happy Halloween to everybody who won't be offended by being wished a happy Halloween.
drorzel | October 29, 2009SteelyKid is 1000000 weeks old (in binary). To celebrate, she engages in some Thursday Night Bison Wrasslin':
Atomic elbow drop! Boom!
Don't worry, it's a friendly bout. Appa's very cuddly, and a good place to relax with a drink:
And while I said we wouldn't engage in this sort of thing, below the fold is a picture of SteelyKid in the tub:
What? You didn't seriously think I'd be crass enough to take naked bath-time photos, did you? To say nothing of posting them on the Internet... Sheesh.
(The baby tub is normally stored under her crib, and she's decided it's fun to drag it out and play…
grrlscientist | October 25, 2009tags: religion, flowchart, humor, funny, diagram
Flowcharts are a great way to make sense out of confusing scenarios, and there's no scenario that's more confusing than trying to figure out what religion you should follow. This helpful flowchart was created to guide you through this complex process:
Can you all spot the error in this diagram?
[Some perspective: If every one of you wonderful people who has been flooding in to my blog these past 18 hours had donated ONLY ONE DOLLAR EACH to my DonorsChoose "Challenge" classrooms, they would have $40,000+ to spend on teaching materials to help…
drorzel | October 15, 2009SteelyKid has cast Appa aside in favor of bigger and better things:
That's right. She's not allowed to have candy yet, but she's already gearing up for Halloween...
The pumpkin bucket is actually a bribe-- I bought it for her to play with while we waited for her prescription to be filled yesterday. This is in fine family tradition-- my father used to buy presents for my sister and me when he had to take us shopping for my mother's birthday...
While we're not going to try giving her candy any time soon, SteelyKid is making great progress in the area of eating, as can be seen in the video…
drorzel | October 8, 2009Winter is coming, and SteelyKid is getting ready. Here, we see her modeling the latest in baby headgear (handed down from a friend):
It's very stylish. I'm not convinced that hugging Appa will take the place of a coat, though...
A slightly better Appa-for-scale picture is below the fold:
This morning at day care, Kate saw her playing peek-a-boo with another child, which was apparently about the cutest thing ever. It's neat to see that she's started to take an interest in playing with other kids, after months and months of viewing them as sort of mobile obstacles.
drorzel | October 7, 2009The Cutest Vaudeville Convict in the Universe says "Hi!"
SteelyKid is fourteen months old today. Between the arbitrary numerical signifier and the outfit, how could we not do some bonus Baby Blogging?
drorzel | October 4, 2009Sunday morning, Chateau Steelypips: Everybody's in the library.
Why does SteelyKid look so pleased with herself, you ask? Because she's found a new game:
On the bright side, Emmy's opinion of SteelyKid has moved beyond "grudging acceptance"...
drorzel | October 1, 2009SteelyKid says, "Baby Blogging time again? Can it wait? I'm in the middle of a book..."
She is her parents' daughter... And also a Great Big Baby, as you can see from this picture of her cuddling Appa:
To really appreciate the contrast, look at this shot from Week 2 of Baby Blogging:
She's grown juuuust a little in the last 58 weeks...
drorzel | September 24, 2009SteelyKid says, "Daaaad! This is no time for Baby Blogging!"
"Appa and I are reading Dinosaur vs. Bedtime. Come back and take a picture later!"
SteelyKid has started to get interested in books, though as you can tell from the orientation of this one, she doesn't exactly have the reading thing down. She loves turning pages, though, and looking at the pictures.
Sadly, she also loves to crinkle the pages up, and try to rip them out. This copy of Dinosaur vs. Bedtime is down a page or two already. She'll learn, though.
drorzel | September 20, 2009I'm working on a badly-neglected project this morning, so here are a couple of pictures of SteelyKid from yesterday's trip to the park. (You can see more in my Flickr sets, linked at left.) This one gets you the basic idea of what it's like taking a very active toddler to the playground:
Finish one thing, and run determinedly toward the next thing...
(This also shows off her awesome "S is for Space Ship" shirt, which is a little big on her, but then, it's a 24-month size, a full nine months ahead of her nominal size. It's also from the boys' department, because girl-toddler clothes all suck…
drorzel | September 17, 2009SteelyKid says "Yayyy! Baby Blogging on the stairs!"
(Not shown: Kate making a similar mouth-wide-open face for a very different reason...)
drorzel | September 12, 2009I almost forgot about yesterday's anniversary-- I didn't think of it at all until the fulsome tribute before Thursday night's football game. I actually waffled for a bit about whether to put up the annual moment-of-silence post. It's been eight years, everybody's concerns have shifted to other things, and September 11, 2001 doesn't loom quite as large as it did a few years ago.
I decided to go with it, though, for the same reasons as always. How long will I keep doing this yearly? Probably until this stops making me cry. Gonna be a few years yet...
Screw this depressing stuff. Here's a happy…
drorzel | September 10, 2009SteelyKid is cutting a couple of molars at the moment, and Cathy at day care mentioned that she was getting some relief by using a pretzel rod as a sort of edible teether that could reach all the way to the back of her mouth. So we picked some up, and they've been a big hit. Here we see SteelyKid offering to share her pretzel with Appa:
Cathy did also mention that the eating of a pretzel was a long and messy process. And really, you have to see it to understand. Still, it makes her happy, and we don't argue with a happy baby...
drorzel | September 7, 2009It's Labor Day today in the US, and Emmy and SteelyKid have both categorically refused to work on the holiday. So here's a picture of some pretty yellow birds.
(That's a thistle seed feeder hanging outside the bay window in our living room. It's shot through the glass, which accounts for the slightly soft focus. Still, it came out surprisingly well. Hooray for the new camera.)