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Brand. Matt.
I love my family, technology, building software, camp, and animal crackers.
I'm a Startup Nerd.
I love building cool software with Django, Rails, etc.
meetings != enjoy && doing == happy.
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Posts
- May 19, 12
Last year, at around this time, I wrote a post that ended with me being doomed. This was a result of Julianna successfully performing in her first recital.
I was correct.
Today she performed in her second recital. Here’s how it all went down:
September, 2011. Weekly ballet class begins.
Same teacher as last year. Different classroom. Different group of girls. Different song (this year the song is Here comes the sun by The Beatles. Same routine (essentially):
Here comes the sun. [do do do do]
[Hands to the left]
This year she had 3 things working in her favor: 1. She’s already done the routine on stage in front of and auditorium filled with what must be thousands of people (not good at estimation). 2. She has three friends from her school in the class with her. 3. She is a year older.
Here comes the sun. [do do do do]
[Hands to the right]
Classes are fun. She’s an old pro. Nothing fazes her…except occasionally (regularly) having to leave class in the middle for a potty break (didn’t have to deal with that last year)…oh no…what if she has a pee accident during the show in May…
It’s all right…
[Hands over head and do the spin thing]
The months go on. Rehearsals are oddly similar to last year…they say repetition repetition repetition. They don’t say repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition repetition but it certainly feels that way to me after what was literally 9 months of this routine followed by 3.5 months off followed by 9 more months of the same routine to a different song.
Little darling, its been a long cold lonely winter.
Little darling, it feels like years since it’s been here.
[Toe point thing and letter 'P' leg move x 2]
See? Ain’t that the truth. Meanwhile, she’s having the time of her life. If I remember correctly, there was a significant part of last year’s “cycle” when we’d have to be in the room with her during class. Times when she didn’t want to go in at all. Now she’s putting her ballet shoes on…running into class on her own.
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s all right…
[Hands to the left]
You know, maybe she’s having a great time and it just doesn’t matter that its exactly the same thing as last year.
Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been here.
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s all right…
[Hands to the right]
The spring rolls around. The new outrageously expensive costume that we justified last year because we’d use it as a play costume after and never did gets ordered again. The StubHub-priced ticket purchases happen to get the collection of relatives, cousins, and broadway scouts in for the recital.
The seats in the same auditorium are found.
The curtain in the same auditorium is closed.
The lights in the same auditorium go out.
The curtain in the same auditorium opens.
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes.
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes.
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes.
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes.
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes.
[Big giant circle with everyone holding hands and chasse moves] – yup, I googled the spelling.
The crowd starts applauding wildly for the circle move. The girls are all smiling ear to ear. But will they be able to get back to their spots and finish the dance…
Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting.
Little darling, it seems like years since it’s been clear.
Here comes the sun.
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s all right.
[Back to spots for a final hands to the left and right]
I don’t know what next year’s routine will bring (but I have a sneaky suspicion) and I suppose it doesn’t really matter. It was awesome again. She had fun. She got on stage again, this time with zero apprehension. She smiled. She didn’t cover her ears. She did the routine. She didn’t have a pee accident.
Here comes the sun
Here comes the sun, and I say
It’s all right.
It’s all right.
[Walk off stage to thunderous applause]
It is. It is ALL right.
- Apr 13, 12
Today Chloe turns 3.
Another year, another birthday. Friday the 13th. A lucky day indeed.
I remember when we were in triage in the maternity ward a few hours before Chloe was born. There was another mom-to-be a few curtains away. I am pretty sure it was her first kid. We were professionals at this point. She had a guy with her who presumably was the father.
In triage, of course, there are just curtains so everyone can hear everything and this guy was a Craftsman…if by craftsman you mean tool. It started with him flirting with the triage nurse. That sort of ended when he asked her for suggestions for names starting with the letter ‘J’ and she gave a name that he balked at and essentially made fun of. At this point I believe she moved on. A bit later, they were told that today was not their day…off you go. See you soon…to which he responded, “Yeah, well, who wants to be born on the 13th anyway. I mean, then your birthday falls on Friday The 13th sometimes.”
Well we were pretty happy with our daughter with the letter ‘J’ and with the other daughter who was born on the 13th.
Chloe has had another great year filled with lots of interesting new adventures, quirks, and funny conversations. Its not always easy for her. She still has some stomach issues that bother her from time to time and still uses an inhaler as a preventative measure but she never complains. She just goes on with her day happy as can be.
Last year she developed a strong interest in geology. This year that continued but we don’t MINED (that joke rocked). Each day we find new rocks in her jacket pockets. I’m not entirely sure what she finds so fascinating about them. She seems to just like having them around. Recently, Julianna complained after a car ride that her rear was hurting her. When she got out of her seat, we found a rock in it. Hmm…wonder how that got there?
Chloe has grown so much in so many ways, including, but not limited to, her hair which went from being relatively short last year to down to her waste. It is wispy and light, sort of like her personality. It falls all over her face and is a food leftover haven, which suits her fine. She’d be happy to sit at a table and eat literally all day long, and no thank you on the cake, she’d rather have fruit. We have a moment that happens every single day after dinner, when the girls are either playing or watching an episode of something (WordWorld is the current fave) when she’ll drop the daily, “[Daddy|Mommy], I’m still hungry.”
I’ve started responding with, “Yes, you are always hungry.”
Then she says, “Yes, I’m still hungry,” followed by her walking over the pantry or refrigerator and staring until ultimately, one of us relents (mostly me).
There’s just something about her that you have to know to understand her I think. For instance, she doesn’t show a great interest in potty training and we’re in no rush. Her diapers have Sesame Street characters on them. She is very meticulous about picking a diaper to wear, each time, but the seemingly greatest joy in her life is the day when the new box of diapers comes home. Oh boy…watch out…you’d think Ed Macmahon just showed up with the Publishers Clearing House with all the jumping and giggling and clapping. She can not wait to get into those diapers and find all the “Baby Elmos”. She puts them all aside in their own pile and goes through those first. I suppose its the simple things for her.
She still loves to chat with the stuffed animals in her crib (also still very content in her crib – not a climber) to the point where we still don’t know how long we could leave her in there in the morning. She almost never complains about being in bed. She’s very imaginative but I think the real gift is when she invites you into her little world.
As affectionate and generally outgoing as Julianna is, Chloe is sort of the opposite. She doesn’t like to be touched really, or hugged, or hold hands all that much. She’s friendly (and doesn’t bite) but just requires that you work for it a little more. I’m ok with that. She’s “careful” about who comes into her world.
Once you’re in though, be ready. Pretend doctor checkups, tasting pretend food, putting ponytails in dolls hair, tea parties, and all the normal kid stuff are fair game. She loves it all. She will sit on a swing in a playground for an hour and let you push her. No need to talk…just enjoying the breeze and being on the swing.
I think she enjoys the presence of people more than the interaction with people. I can relate. She gets sad when Julianna isn’t around. They play together really nicely most of the time but sleepovers are becoming more common for Julianna. Chloe shows no interest. She just likes having her sister around.
I’ve been trying for a while to wrap my head around what I think makes her so unique and cool and recently I think I figured it out: Her eye contact.
When she feels comfortable with you, she’ll look you right in the eye and tell you exactly what she wants. A lot of kids do this, including Julianna but there is something very direct that you can see in Chloe’s eyes when she’s communicating with you. You combine that with bobbing her head with each word and it becomes very compelling to just talk to her.
Imagine the following sentence with a head nod/bob for each word and wide eyes and a very serious tone:
“Daddy. If you wait until Hanukkah time and your hair grows, you can become a girl. I have boobies. Do you have boobies? Can I see your boobies daddy?”
She said that to me yesterday. I don’t even know what to make of it. So silly, but thoughtful in her mind and very matter of fact.
I suppose that’s the way to describe the person Chloe has become thus far:
Silly. Thoughtful. Matter of fact.
As a matter of fact, she’s pretty awesome because while I’m sure she couldn’t articulate it yet, she’s not afraid to be just a little different and that’s pretty cool in my book.
She rocks.
Happy Birthday Chloe.
- Mar 24, 12
Today Julianna turns 4.
Another year, another birthday. Today was not only the end of a week-long birthday celebration, but also a chapter in Julianna’s Excellent Adventure. We’ve only completed 3 chapters so far and its already feeling a bit repetitive to say this but, what a year. I mean, what a year.
Last year at this time I remember thinking about how I had a real, human, person as a daughter. A person I could chat with and go for walks with and appreciate things with. All of that was true then and all of that is even more true now. 3 to 4 was no less of a jump than 2 to 3. I wouldn’t even say it was more of a jump; just different.
This was the year when we went shopping for underwear and she learned how to put it on by herself, instead of her diaper. Then she learned how to sit on a toilet and do her business.
This was the year where she stopped sleeping in a crib and started sleeping in a “big girl bed”.
This was the year when, like a velociraptor, she learned how to use doorknobs to open doors and go where she wants to go, when she wants to go.
This was the year when she learned how to read, and write her name.
This was the year when she learned how to do basic math.
This was the year when she started to really wonder about places outside her own small world.
This was the year she got up on stage in front of a auditorium full of strangers and performed what felt like a 2 hour ballet routine.
This was the year she went on her first real sleepover.
This was the year (I think) she developed what I would define as real friendships (outside our house).
This was the year she asked where babies and “pyramids” come from.
This was the year when she had her first professional sports local championship (Bruins).
This was the year when she went to her first Red Sox game where she saw the aforementioned Bruins collectively throw out the first pitch with the Stanley Cup, and saw the Red Sox score 6 times in the first inning on a perfect Sunday afternoon while she danced, ate icecream, popcorn, pizza, and anything else she could get her hands on.
This was the year she learned how to be a great big sister; sharing, hugging, and teaching Chloe in her own little ways.
This was the year she decided that, yes, she did want to go snow tubing down the mountain and, no, she did not want to sit on someone’s lap.
This was the year that she overtly joined in on the adventure.
This was the year when I thought it wouldn’t be possible to be prouder to have her as a daughter than last year. Wrong.
That was the year when.
This is the beginning of the year when…
Happy Birthday Julianna.
- Feb 14, 12
In 1 month you’ll be four.
In 2 months you’ll be three.
Today is another reminder
Of what you both mean to me.
With your curly hair and your dancing,
With your straight hair and your quirks,
I’m up late many nights,
Pondering how all this works.
What kind of people will you grow to be?
What kind of things will you achieve?
What kind of career will you take on?
What kind of tricks are up your sleeve?
What will your hobbies be?
Will you like math or history?
Will you want to travel the world?
Will you go to Israel and plant a tree?
Don’t ever stop asking questions.
Don’t ever stop being you.
Maybe some day I’ll have grandkids.
And you’ll have this feeling too.
Maybe I’ll walk you down an aisle.
Maybe I’ll bail you out of jail.
Maybe you’ll go to summer camp.
Maybe you’ll send me mail.
I thought I’d write a poem.
I hoped I’d write it with ease.
Filled with silliness and sentiment.
Like a donut filled with cheese.
Some days will be perfect.
Some days you’ll get miffed.
One thing is certain though,
Having you as daughters is the greatest gift.
It doesn’t matter if its Valentine’s Day.
It doesn’t matter if its not.
I don’t need Hallmark or anything else to remind me,
That you girls are two of the three best things I’ve got.
Happy Everyday.
Love,
Daddy
- Feb 05, 12
Given the tough economy and the fact that she is almost 4, it is time for Julianna to start working on building her professional career. This process starts with a solid resume. Some information has been redacted to protect her competitive advantage related with starting “so early”.
Julianna
Age: Almost 4Email address: Have your people call my people.
Objective:
Paint. Eat Mac & Cheese. Play with all my dolls over there. Read my books. Go to school. Have swimming. Go to gymnastics. Do ballet.
Education:
Toddler 1 class at school where I learned the various colors of the rainbow as well as shapes like “square” and “circle”. Toddler 2 class at school where I learned more advanced colors like “fuscia” and tricky shapes like hexagons. Pre-School 1 where I got crazy and learned things like yellow+blue=green and the Pythagorean Theorem.
Expected matriculation: Spring 2013*.
* Planning to attend Mossy League Kindergarten Program
Experience:
Newborn/Infant- March 2010 – March 2010- Responsible for crawling
- Worked with family to eat solid food
- Cared for pacifier “lovey” device
- Befriended Minnie Mouse doll that remains a part of family to this day
Toddler – March 2009-March 2010- Attended gymnastics class where the successfully stood on 1 foot for 3 seconds.
- Learned how to use fork.
- Responsible for use of complex communication tool: English.
Little Girl - March 2010 – Present- Leads team of 2 people in play time.
- Raise hand frequently to ask questions
- Helps
- Responsible for sitting on toilet and going to potty all by self
- Try food before throwing on floor
- Clean up toys after self.
Skills
Hello Kitty guitar rocker. Climbing up to top of slide. Sliding down. Microsoft Office. Forward rolls. Reading books. Writing own name. Feeding self. Mad Nunchuk skills. Loving sister.
References
Available upon request.
- Jan 07, 12
It went a lot better than I thought it would.
Technically speaking, our kids have had sleepovers before. They’ve slept outside our house without us there. They’ve slept in our house without us there. They’ve slept in different houses from each other, once, but each of them had one of us. This was different.
This was to be a new adventure. One of my aunts invited Julianna to come to her house for a sleepover. My sister’s 5 year old daughter was also invited. Girl party!
My aunt had prepared a team of people: Her husband, 1 of her sons, 2 of my other cousins (both teachers with lots of kidperience), and 1 golden retriever. She had meals, activities, and sleeping arrangements planned. She even had a plan for how to deal with Julianna’s slowly fading fear of dogs (another story for another time).
For a week leading up to the kickoff, we prepped Julianna. We would tell her how much fun she was going to have and how it would be sooo cool to get to sleep at another house and how her cousin had done this before and loved it and now SHE got to do it too and so on. At first, she was skeptical. At first, she had lots of questions about the dog situation, like, “will Belle sleep in the same room?”. This question was oozing with deeper meaning. We assured her that she had nothing to worry about. We told her, “Belle is extremely gentle and loving and frankly would much rather eat her older cousin.”
As the week went on, the assurances got easier. The excitement got greater. Finally, we got to a point where we had to pack our overnight bag. For this, the big guns: A princess rolly suitcase. Outfits. Check. Books. Check. Special pillow. Check. Everything else. Check. The last bit was to pack her favorite bedtime friend, a Minnie Mouse doll that has been with her every night since right around her birth. For that, we’d wait until morning.
Morning arrives. She’s very excited now. The plan is to go to school, as normal, and then mommy will pick her up early, along with her cousin and bring them both back to our house where my aunt will be waiting. We get to school and she’s so excited that she’s telling anyone who will listen what she’s doing tonight.
What could possibly go wrong?
Turns out, not a whole lot.
My wife goes to get the girls and brings them back to our house. My aunt had arrived a few minutes prior, which was enough time to get the car seats installed. The girls come into the house for a quick potty break and a snack attack and then into the car they go. Julianna is so excited at this point, she vaults into her car seat like she was some sort of olympic athlete. If only she did that every time…
Off they go. I tell myself 4 things:
- I hope she has an awesome time.
- I hope she misses us.
- I hope I don’t have to drive 45 minutes to pick her up at 2:00am.
- We aren’t going to call every 5 minutes to see how she’s doing.
After all, there will be 2.5 adults for each kid.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, we could forget that we had another kid…
We didn’t. We went to pick Chloe up a little later and had a very nice, and relatively quiet time with her, which included a later-than-we’d-normally-be-out trip to the toy store. Guilt.
We had an easy night. Checked in once or maybe twice with the sleepover to find out that they had eaten dinner (Mac & Cheese), baked cupcakes, and even pet Belle the dog. The night ended at around 10:00 when Julianna, who was one of the last to fall asleep, was apparently still so excited, that she was sitting up on her knees on her bed, trying to talk to people, and then literally passed out.
All is well. They essentially slept through the night without a hitch. They woke up and made pancakes. They played, went on a hike, and barely got a scratch. Barely. One little fall and one little drama moment but nothing arm shattering. No calls to be picked up immediately.
Meanwhile, my wife and I are now “remembering” how easy having 1 kid in the house was. Eventually, it was time to head out and pick Julianna up. We all get in the car, anxious to see how it all went. We walk in the house and get this:
“Can you go outside, I don’t want to leave yet.”
Perhaps she’s more resilient than we give her credit for.
She had an awesome time, was well behaved, and can’t wait to do it again.
And she didn’t even get eaten by a dog.
- Jan 02, 12
Julianna almost never naps at school. She will occasionally nap at home but we try and limit that. We sometimes encourage her to just stay in her room for a little while and “rest”. She can get out of bed and pick a few books to read. Generally, this is the plan at home and if she falls asleep, fine.
She has become pretty good at “working” her room. She can even put herself to bed at night to a certain extent. On the nights when it seems like she just isn’t ready for bed, we might even leave the light on, let her pick a few books and then make an “agreement” that she’ll read for a few minutes and then turn her own light off. Many times, this works. We’ll come back 30 minutes later and the light is off, she’s tucked herself in, and she’s asleep.
Today was a non-school day. Today her “rest” turned into sleep. She slept for probably 1.5 hours. No big deal. This does tend to push her bedtime back a little. We had a playdate scheduled for the afternoon so we figured she’d probably use up the extra energy. It all evens out at the end right?
Wrong.
The following just happened:
Bedtime was in the normal window (7:30-8:00). Tonight was my wife’s night with Julianna. No problem.
By 8:00 my wife and I were both out of our respective rooms and down in the living room watching tv.
Around 9:15 we hear Julianna quietly singing to herself (yes, we still have a monitor in her room). This happens sometimes. She probably was just not that sleepy. No problem. She isn’t complaining.
Bonus: She was singing Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror” with the following lyrics:
“My mother is the man in the mirror!”
We thought nothing of it.
10:00. She is still singing and whispering a bit…but now we hear her moving around (the living room is below her bedroom).
Hmm…I wonder what’s going on in there?
10:15. We head upstairs and notice that there is full light coming through the bottom of her door. Oh boy…
We decide we are both going in to see what she’s doing. It has gotten a little quiet so maybe she fell asleep…
I crack the door and notice she isn’t in her bed. Oh, she probably fell asleep on the floor somewhere.
Wrong.
She runs over from her closet…FULLY DRESSED!
She has a big grin on her face, and tells us with a lot of pride, that she is ready for school. She had gotten out of bed, turned on her light, opened her window blinds, gotten out of her pajamas, taken off her nighttime pull-up diaper (which she told us she put in the small garbage can in her room), picked out an outfit for herself (which actually matched), went and got herself a pair of underpants, and got herself dressed.
Now, granted, the shirt was on inside out, but…the shirt was a shirt that happened to be on a hanger in her closet. Of course, she told us, she used her little stool to reach high enough to get it. Forget the t-shirts that are in her dresser. She decided that she would rather look through her closet for a shirt that was more appealing…
…and then go back to the dresser to find a pair of pants that matched. I can’t even do that.
She was all ready to go. 10 hours early.
“Daddy, I’m ready to go to school. I’m not tired. Is Chloe up?”
“No Julianna, Chloe is not up. Nobody is up. It isn’t even tomorrow yet.”
“Oh, but I’m not tired.”
“Ok…well…um…as a special treat, why don’t we go watch 1 episode of something (Sid The Science Kid) and then we’ll try this again.”
So now it’s 11:00 and we try again.
Back in our pajamas.
Back in bed.
Reading a few books.
Singing a few songs.
Wondering when my little toddler turned into a big girl.
11:15. I say goodnight and close the door.
11:16. She’s out cold.
So that happened.
- Dec 26, 11
“Daddy, where does the pyramid come from?”
Well, I get these types of questions regularly. My mother was recently asked by Julianna why she couldn’t see the moon during the day. What can I say, my kids are nerd-wannabes like their daddy. It makes me very proud.
“Daddy, where does the pyramid come from?”
Context: Julianna is sitting on the toilet right before bed.
I say, “Julianna, what do you mean? People built them.”
“No, where does the pyramid come from?”
I say, “I’m not sure what you mean.” [as she looks around the room].
So I start to look around the room trying to figure out what she’s referencing.
“Daddy, where does MY pyramid come from? Does it come from here?” [pointing to her rear]
“um…” [confused]
“Does my pyramid come from here?” [pointing again]
“Wait,” I say, “do you mean, ‘where does your PERIOD come from?’”
“Yes.”
umm…
She recently came across a tampon in our bathroom and asked what it was. Is it something you eat? No. Is it something mommy eats? No. What does it do? Ask mommy.
She must have asked mommy…
Now she wants to know where her pyramid comes from.
Egypt.
Question mark?
Exclamation point!
- Dec 23, 11
Author: Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrations: Clement Hurd
Report By: Matthew Seth (34 Years Old)
Goodnight Moon
(If you have the book, follow along with the pictures)
“In the great green room there was a telephone, and a red balloon, and a picture of, a cow jumping over the moon.”
My Julianna lives in a great green room but the day I put a telephone in there is the day…well…my kids are likely to not know what a phone with a cord is. As for the red balloon, the bunny must have been at Kelly’s Roast Beef. They give out balloons and we are never “allowed” to leave without getting one.
“There were three little bears, sitting on chairs and two little kittens and a pair of mittens.”
The thing they don’t mention here but the keen detective will observe is that the bunny has a fireplace in her room (the bunny is a her in my house). I thought that the lack of safety rails on the bed was enough…but this is going too far. Plus, if you have a fireplace, why do you need mittens? Perhaps the fireplace isn’t real. After all, it doesn’t cast any real light like the lamp does. Also worth noting, the mittens clearly don’t fit the bunny (notice the giant thumbs on the mittens).
“And a little toy house and a young mouse.”
Now I know why there are no bed rails. This bunny probably actually sleeps in the little toy house. I suppose “little” is relative because clearly she could fit in there…which is where she has to go to escape from that ferocious young mouse. Oh wait, I forgot, there are two little kittens who would probably eat that mouse.
“And a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush.”
The bunny has no hair so why the comb AND brush? I’m just speculating here but I imagine it had to be shaved off after the last time she had a bowl full of mush that got stuck in her hair as she tried to eat it in bed in the dark.
Anyway…
“And a quiet old lady who was whispering HUSHHHH…”
Wait, where did she come from? A minute ago the bunny was alone in the room. Of course, this explains why the young mouse wasn’t eaten by the two little kittens: Quiet old lady dropped her ball of yarn on the floor.
“Goodnight room. Goodnight moon. Goodnight cow jumping over the moon. Goodnight light, and the red balloon. Goodnight bears. Goodnight chairs. Goodnight kittens. Goodnight mittens.”
Hold on, where did the socks go that were on the clothes line thing a few minutes ago?
“Goodnight clocks. Goodnight socks.”
Oh, they’re back.
“Goodnight little house and goodnight mouse. Goodnight comb. Goodnight brush. Goodnight nobody. Goodnight mush.”
I’ve had to try and explain what “Goodbye nobody” means and what it is doing in the middle. “Daddy, how do I say goodnight to nobody?”
“And goodnight to the old lady whispering HUSHHHH…”
Notice how attentive the two little kittens are now that the quiet old lady has cleaned up her yarn mess.
“Goodnight stars. Goodnight air.”
Let’s hope not.
“Goodnight noises, everywhere.”
“Daddy, I just made a fart.”
“Goodnight noises, everywhere, except for that one.”
- Dec 23, 11
The big moments in my parenting life are easy to remember. Daddaism was designed to be a place where Dads could share those moments.
That’s what it is for me. That’s what it could be for you.
Full disclosure: I love writing on this blog. I wish I wrote more but what I’m sharing here is much less about “you” as it is about me wanting to record my thoughts, feelings, memories, and general experience with my kids so that 25 years from now, when Julianna marries Lucifer and 26 years from now when Chloe marries Satan, I will have some embarrassing stories to bring up.
Birthdays and holidays are generally great catalysts for heartfelt posts. Today is neither of those things but I’ve been thinking of what my next post would be about and what great “moments” had happened recently that had anything to do with Recitals, Turning 4, Cutting Turkey, Cutting Cheese, etc. Nothing. New Years is soon…I suppose I can wait and do a “Year That Was” post. I’m sure I will. In the meantime, there have been a handful of funny and interesting little moments that I don’t want to forget about, none of which merit a whole post…
Begin.
Tonight at bedtime, Chloe told me that we were in her home. I asked her where my home was. She told me it was also here. Holy sh*t, there are people other than my wife and I who call this place home.
Julianna wanted me to explain to her how to count to infinity.
The last episode of Glee (which we don’t show our kids) had a song at the end that was fantastic. It is called “We Are Young” by a band called Fun. It was very catchy. Very Breakfast Club. We got it on iTunes. The next morning, on the ride to school, I told my daughters that I was going to play a new song for them. The song started and about 43 seconds in, Julianna said, “Daddy, can you start this one from the beginning please?” That’s our indication that she likes the song. I don’t think we’ve listened to a different song since. Over and over and over again. I secretly do the same thing. Weeks at a time.
Julianna is in a “body exploration” phase. Yesterday, she announced the following to my mother-in-law: “I have a small Bagina”
Chloe can sing many of the words from “We Didn’t Start The Fire”. Deal with it.
Julianna asked my mother recently why she couldn’t see the moon during the day.
Chloe does this thing where she randomly comes up to me and puts her finger on my cheek and runs it up to my forehead and says “Zzzzoooooop!” I believe she might be from a different planet.
Julianna likes to call us over and “whisper” into our ears. If only it was a whisper. It’s more like she’s using a megaphone.
Chloe doesn’t like birthday cake although at a birthday party today for one of their cousins, she let me give her a bite of my piece. She kept it in her mouth for about 2 seconds and then tried to take it out of her mouth and put it in mine. I believe she might be from a different planet.
Julianna has a “big girl” bed now. My wife left bedtime with her over 30 minutes ago and decided to try and let her put herself to bed tonight. This will involve reading on her own and then going over and turning off the light and tucking herself in. As we speak, I can hear in the monitor (and why not), whispering to her stuffed animals, dolls, and various other “friends” that it is time to turn the light out and please no more talking after she does that. When did my newborn turn into a human who can get in and out of bed, turn on and off the lights, and “read”?
There are tons of these types of moments and they happen every day.
I can’t possibly remember them all and maybe they aren’t as important as remembering the recitals and the Halloween costumes and the birthdays and the multiple Masters degrees and the first PhD and the third Oscar and the other Darryl and the second Darrin…
But I know there are going to be a lot more of these little moments and perhaps quality and quantity aren’t mutually exclusive.
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Tweets
- I just bought 1 share of facebook and then moved to singapore.
- @adamrubin TBS! #veryfunny
- My sister, @CoreyPenn2 is on twitter. #snortswhenshelaughs
- Had it not been for the booboo she was showing me, I think my daughter giving me the finger would have been insulting
- Yes, I see this @beardedadcox27
- Oh Magnolia cupcakes... I'm coming for you.
- @adamrubin congrats. I hope you learn soon. This is getting ridiculous.
- Could do without the people next to me making out...
- Hippy cab driver telling me about smuggling drugs in dead animals and hippy dude with those toe sneakers. Off to a good start
- New show #awake on nbc is awesome. Starts in March. Ondemand now. 1 episode. Hooked. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm asleep.
- @adamrubin you can pretend you don't watch but you knew it was on. Admit it. Be proud. #cougartown
- “@daddaism: Daddaism: Longfellow http://t.co/WAWZ1Gki”
-
Info
- SummaryI love building web applications that are different from anything you've seen before. I'm in the business of "everything is possible"Specialties: UI, UX, Django, Ruby on Rails, Javascript, CSS, DHTML, AJAX, Top Half of the Stack, joke-telling, and general troublemakingExperience
- Sept 2011 - PresentChief Architect / Bunk1.comBuilding the next great thing.
- Oct 2010 - Sept 2011Sr. Software Engineer / MzingaFirst full-time hire in a R&D team with the goal of building out the new platform for Mzinga.
- Oct 2008 - Oct 2010Director, Camp Tevya / Cohen CampsResponsible for running every aspect of a 2 month long summer overnight camp. There were over 300 campers and over 100 staff members during each summer.
- Aug 2005 - Oct 2008Sr. Software Engineer / TabbloPart of a genuine rock star team of people who developed the most unique photo sharing/story telling website out there before there were nearly the technology tools there are today.
- Aug 2004 - Jun 2005Software Engineer / Weblayers, IncThis was so 2004. I was the UI guy.
- 2002 - 2004Software Enginner / Novell, IncPart of team that built what would become the Novell eXtend Platform
- Sept 1999 - Jun 2004Software Engineer / SilverstreamTold many jokes. UI guy for the SilverStream ePortal Won fantasy football league Destroyed ping pong competition Worked with lots of smart people
Education-
1995 - 1999Syracuse UniversityInformation Management and Technology in Information Management and Technology
Activities: AskERIC R&D
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Posts
- Jun 14, 11
So you’ve setup your camp. You’ve added your sessions. You’ve added campers. You’ve even built your program. Now its time to assign campers and cabins to activities.
Assigning campers and cabins can be a tedious process in any system but in Programifier there are tools that will hopefully make it a more intuitive, easy-to-use experience that will reduce the amount of time it takes to achieve your ultimate goal.
Once you arrive on the Assignments page (via the tab on the left side of the pageonce you’re signed up and logged in), you will be able to choose the Camp, Session, and Program you want to work with. Once you make those choices, you’ll see a folder “tree” of all of your cabins, and if you expand the folders, their campers. You will also see the Program that you already built show up on the majority right side of your screen.
The activity blocks that you’ve added to your program will be represented in 1 of 2 ways: All Camp blocks will show up as Grey boxes and the rest of the blocks will show up as Yellow boxes. You don’t have to worry about assigning the All Camp blocks because the assumption is that everyone goes to those activities, otherwise they wouldn’t be All Camp.
At this point you have 2 choices:
1. Use your mouse to click and drag a Cabin from the list on the left to a Yellow activity block.
2. Use your mouse to click and drag a Camper from the list on the left to a Yellow activity block.
There are slightly different behaviors depending on whether you choose a camper or a cabin but first…
In either case, when you release the mouse button, a window will appear showing you the activity choices for that block. For a Cabin, you simply click on the activity you’d like to choose and click the “Set Assignment” button. You’ll notice that under each activity, you’ll see the capacity you optionally specified when you built your Program. Programifier does NOT restrict activity assignments based on capacities. It is simply a tool you can use to monitor your activity sizes. The number will turn red if you go over your own capacity to alert you but it won’t stop you from adding more campers or cabins.
For a camper, you get an additional tool in the activity chooser: Once you click on the activity you want to assign, you can click a checkbox on the bottom left of the window that says “Repeat this asssignment?” This will “extend” the window and show you the 6 other days of the week and allow you to choose which days to duplicate this assignment. Only days where the activity actually happens at the same time AND the current camper doesn’t have another commitment will be available.
“I want to assign Mikey to Instructional Tennis Level 1 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays during Period 2.”
Simply check the days you want and then click the “Set Assignment” button. Anytime you want to make a change, you can drag the camper or cabin back to the activity block and just choose a different activity. You can also “clear” an assignment by dragging the camper/cabin to the block you want to clear and clicking the “Clear Assignment” link on the bottom right of the activity chooser.
You might also notice percentages that appear next to each camper’s name. That percentage is based on the total number of activity blocks you have in your program and how many are currently assigned to that camper. When you move your mouse over a campers name, you’ll see that activity blocks will change color to show you where you’ve already completed assignments. If you have already assigned a cabin to a particular activity block, you will not be able to assign any individual campers in that cabin to that activity block.
Setting assignments is hopefully a fast and easy process that I think you’ll find pretty easy to accomplish.
Stay tuned for the next Feature Focus soon…
-Matt
- May 07, 11
This is the 2nd post in a series that will highlight some of the features in Programifier. The first, Help Is Here, highlights some of the ways that Programifier makes it easier for you to figure out how to get around and how to complete the tasks that you need to complete.
This post is about one of the largest and arguably most important features that puts the Program in Programifier.
So what is a Program and how do you build one?
Good question.
A Program is how you define a week in time at your camp. It is made up of Activity Blocks which are made up of Activities. The Program can be assigned to multiple camp sessions and can be used over and over again, from year to year. You can have as many Programs as you’d like. As an example, you might have a ‘General Program’ assigned to Session 1 as well as a ‘Counselor In Training Program’ assigned to the same session. From year to year, your General Program might stay essentially the same except for perhaps a few Activity changes. More on that in a bit…
Once you’ve created a Program, its time for the real fun: The Program Builder. Each Program has a ‘Build’ link next to it. Clicking on that link will bring you into the Program Builder. When you first start building a new Program, you will see a blank grid with the times of the day down the left side (in 5 minute increments) and the days of the week across the top. There are a few “convenience” items to take note of: You’ll notice that not all 24 hours of the day are listed. There is a “Show Common Downtime” button above the grid that you can click to see every hour.
Also, when you first start a new Program, you will see a box with a few template choices that can help get you started. These templates will essentially add a day’s worth of Activity Blocks that you can edit and then repeat (more on that later).
Ok, so you have your new Program. What’s next?
You can click on any of the white boxes in the grid to create an Activity Block. An Activity Block is NOT an Activity. It is a block of time that can hold as many Activities as you want. For example, an Activity Block might be called “Period 1″ and might contain Tennis, Basketball, Arts & Crafts, Swimming, etc. Activity Blocks do not need to be named but can be for your convenience. Also, you can restrict Activity Blocks to be All Camp. An All Camp Activity Block will only allow you to have 1 Activity assigned to it. For instance, you might create a daily Activity Block with no name that is All Camp. You then might assign 1 Activity to it called “Lunch”. In the Activity Block creator window, you will be able to drag a slide to set the block length. Sometimes you will see that the slider limits how long the Activity Block can be. That is because Activity Blocks can’t overlap.
The recommended process is to “block” out 1 day at a time and then fill up each Activity Blocks with Activities. Once you create an Activity Block, you will be able to move your mouse over a block. When you do that, you will see 4 links for that Activity Block: Edit, Activities, Repeat, Delete.
Edit allows you to change a Block’s name (optional), change its length, or restrictions (All Camp). Clicking Activities will open the Activity Editor (more in a minute). Repeat will bring up the Repeat Editor which allows you to repeat the Activity Block across any of the days in the week that do not have schedule conflicts at that Block’s time. Repeating an Activity Block will repeat all the Activities assigned as well. This is why it is recommended to finish 1 day’s Activity Blocks and Activities, and then Repeat. Otherwise, you’ll have to go through the new Activity Blocks and add Activities again. Finally, the Delete link does what you’d expect: It deletes the Activity Block. The Activities assigned to that Block will still be available to other Blocks. They don’t get deleted.
Now for Activities. When you click the Activities link, you get the Activity Editor. From here, you can create a new Activity, edit existing Activities, add existing Activities to the current Activity Block, or remove Activities from the current Activity Block. Its not nearly as complicated as that sentence.
Here are some important things to know about Activities: Any Activity you create will be accessible to any other Program and any other Activity Block in your entire Organization. If you run multiple camps and want 1 person to create all your Activities for consistency, that’s fine. Activities only need to be created once. For instance: If you have an Activity called “Lunch” that everyone participates in and doesn’t change from day to day, you can just create a Lunch Activity and add it to the appropriate Activity Blocks. If, however, you have multiple skill levels of Tennis Instruction, then you’ll want to create multiple Activities: Tennis Instruction Level 1, Tennis Instruction Level 2, etc.
There is no limit to the number of Activities you can assign to an Activity Block UNLESS you specified that the Block is ‘All Camp’ (then you can only choose 1). Activities are defined by a name, capacity, and description. The name is the only required information. Capacity is informational and can be used as a guideline for you. I’d recommend using description so you minimize confusion when you are assigning Campers to Activities later (Tennis Instruction Level 1 and Level 2 should have different descriptions).
Building Programs is a relatively “long” process the first time but hopefully, once you do it, you’ll very rarely have to do it again. Hopefully you’ll find that Building Programs in Programifier gives you much more flexibility to structure and organize your camp schedule exactly how want to do it.
The next Feature Focus is coming soon…
-Matt
- May 01, 11
When I originally started thinking about how to design and ultimately build Camplifier and its parts, I came up with some rules and fundamental characteristics of the service that I wanted to make sure played a big part.
So this is the first in a series of posts highlighting features that I thought were really important to have.
Help
How many times have you used a piece of software and felt lost in some way? In an ideal world, you’d never need help because the software would be so perfect for you that you’d just know where everything was and what everything did and what you were supposed to do. Even the best software can’t fully manage that completely but Camplifier is going to try. Hard. There are a few things that you’ll find starting in Programifier that should help alleviate that feeling of being lost:
- When you login you will notice a few things. On the top right of each page you will see the question “How much help would you like?“ Depending on what you choose, you will see different amounts of help and information built into each page. As you get more comfortable, you can just change that setting. If you ever want to get the help back, just change it again.
- Depending on what setting you choose, you will see a red box on the right side of most pages (some pages have the box across the top). This box explains what you can do on the current page. It is not intended to be a full instruction manual but it should be enough to get you going.
- When you go to any page, you will see a box popup “above” the page. This is similar to the red box on the side but offers much more detail about each page. You can close these boxes at any time. If you decide that they are annoying you or you already understand, the box that pops up has a link on the bottom that says “Don’t show me these reference popups anymore please“. If you click that, the popups will stop appearing. If you want them back, click the link on the left side of the page (under the tabs) that says “Help popups“.
- In additional, the content of those popups, and a lot more information over time can be found at http://support.camplifier.com – That is a community driven support site where anyone can go to not only find helpful information about the Camplifier Suite but also a place where you can submit questions, problems you’ve found, or participate in forum conversations with other Camplifier users.
So this is the beginning. Over time, the help will grow with the community. There is a lot of information available to you once you sign in. I understand that it might be overwhelming but I’d rather you have too much information than not enough. Also, if its in your way or annoying you, you can just tell it to leave you alone.
Stay tuned for the next Feature Focus…
-Matt
- Apr 25, 11
There is a light at the end of the tunnel and that means an official Programifier Beta is coming very soon. I am very excited to share with everyone what the Camplifier suite is all about and how it can help you run your business more efficiently and effectively.
In the next couple of weeks, the first part of the suite, Programifier will be ready for a private Beta. That means that a small group of people will be allowed to sign up and start using the site. Customer feedback is essential to building the best possible product so for a short period of time, the size of the group will be limited. If you are interested in participating, please submit your email address at www.camplifier.com or send an email and express your interest.
Shortly after the private beta, the doors will open fully and Programifier will be available to anyone who wants to use it.
Soon, I will start sharing some of the things i think make Camplifier and its parts really cool and different from anything you’ve seen before. Here’s a little taste of what you’ll get with Programifier:
- Easily create your organization, with multiple camps if you’d like.
- Create as many camp sessions as you’d like.
- Create ‘Programs’ and assign them to sessions
- Fill your Programs with Activity Blocks and Activities
- Create campers either manually or in bulk via CSV file upload.
- Assign campers to Activities
- Print schedules by camper, cabin, or activity
- Pay monthly, not annually. Turn off your subscription at any time. You can always re-subscribe and your organization will still be there.
- Use it this summer.
Ok, so that’s a bit more than a taste but hopefully you get the idea.
More soon.
-Matt
- Apr 25, 11
Today I had the chance to lead a session at the New England American Camp Associationannual conference in Manchester, NH called “Technology is Your Friend”. The session was about various tools that camp professionals can use to help make their jobs (and lives) at least a little easier, or at least a little more efficient.
The conference is a well-attended conference for camp professionals in the New England region. There are lots of camp-lovers and lots of great sessions to attend.
I had the opportunity to speak to quite a few camp professionals and start to share what Camplifier is all about. In the coming weeks, the first stand-alone product in the Camplifier Suite will be available to start using: Programifier. The plan is to focus and release Programifier first so it can be used in time for the summer of 2011.
I promise this will be different than anything else you’ve seen for managing your camp. I’m very excited about it and hope you will be too.
-Matt
- Apr 25, 11
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Posts
- May 27, 11
Been a while. I’ve been working on other things like my daddy blog and some other nerd side projects here and here.
If you aren’t a) at least a little nerdy and b) interested in Ruby on Rails, stop reading now. You won’t care about this.
I am relatively new to the Rails world (October of 2010) but have plenty of experience with lots of other stacks and just got back last week from RailsConf 2011 in Baltimore. There was a strong focus at the conference on the upcoming Rails 3.1.
So this week at work I started playing with upgrading our Rails app to Rails 3.1.rc1. There isn’t a whole lot of documentation about 3.1 yet as expected, its not even finished, but most of the documentation that I’ve found relates to creating new apps, not upgrading existing apps.
I figured I might share my thoughts and experiences so far because by all accounts, 3.1 introduces lots of great changes.
Again, I’m certainly no expert and I’m almost positive I’ve done some things wrong but as of right now, we pretty much have an upgraded Rails 3.1 app. Go take a look at the official release for the basic info. I will not go into much detail here about actually using CoffeeScript or Sass. Those will be in future posts as I use them more. This is going to be more about “upgrading your infrastructure”.
Arguably the biggest new feature is Asset Pipeline. To take advantage of this, it basically meant manually creating an assets directory in the /project/app directory and then again in the /project/vendor directory. Inside those directories, I created images, javascripts, and stylesheets directories (just like what you had in your public directory. Now for the fun…
We had our share of JavaScript libraries, starting with jQuery. jQuery is now the default JS library so I got rid of our versions as well as rails.js. Then it was time to make choices. Application-specific JS files went into /project/app/assets/javascripts and the additional jQuery libraries went into /project/vendor/asssets/javascripts. The same types of changes for the stylesheets and for images. By this point, we had nothing left in the public directory except for some empty directories.
Nothing will work yet.
Configuration changes to be made in your Gemfile
- Change your gem ‘rails’ to gem ‘rails’, ’3.1.0.rc1′
- Add the following gems for the Asset Pipeline: ‘sass’, ‘coffee-script’, ‘uglifier’
- Make sure you have the ‘jquery-rails’ gem
- Ran into some problems with dependencies for the omniauth gem and commented it out for the moment
Run the typical bundle install.
In application.rb you need to add:
config.assets.enabled = true # Enables the Asset Pipeline
In development.rb I commented out the config.action_view.debug_rjs = true line. Sometimes you get to a point where you just want to see something work.
To actually reference the assets correctly, a few more changes to go…
We were using application.js as the global JS file. I moved all that JavaScript into a new /project/app/assets/javascripts/project.js. application.js can now be used as the aggregator. At runtime, all of your JS libraries will be collected into this file and. First, in your layouts, or wherever you do your JavaScript includes, you just need this one include:
<%= javascript_include_tag “application” %>
Here’s what our application.js looks like (this is the whole file):
//= require jquery
//= require jquery_ujs
//= require_tree ../../../vendor/assets/javascripts/
//= require “project”Notice the quotes around “project”. That is similar to the “old” way where it is referencing a file, any file in any of the asset directories, without the extension. Add as many as you like. If you just want to load all the JS files in the directory, you can just do:
//= require .
Keep in mind, if the order that the files are loaded matters, you need to add them manually like the “project” reference.
The key thing to know here is that whatever you list in this file will be loaded on every page so if you have more controller-specific JavaScript libraries, the old-fashioned way still works: Add another <%= javascript_include_tag “other_library” %> to the views you want.
You now need to do some similar stuff for stylesheets. The concept is the same. The syntax is a little different, of course, based on CSS:
/*
*= require_self
*= require “mywidgets”
*= require_tree ../../../vendor/assets/stylesheets/
* require_tree .
*/You then add your <%= stylesheet_link_tag “application” %> just like for JavaScript.
And you’re ready to go…
- May 27, 11
Maybe I’m out of touch.
I heard a radio ad this morning proclaiming a new great benefit for Delta customers who get a Delta Premier American Express something-or-other card. Ooh, a great new benefit…I like the sound of that. Ready for this great new benefit:
“If you sign up for the credit card and become a member, your 1st piece of luggage is free!”
Impressive. This is a head-scratcher for me. I haven’t traveled via airplane much recently but I know that everyone is charging for luggage and everything else. I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before I’m required to bring my Fastlane transponder with me on the plane so that when they fly through the new floating air tollbooths I can get charged appropriately.
It’s one thing to raise prices and charge for everything and give me some reason. At least you are pretending to be “honest” with me. It’s another thing to pretend that you are actually going out of your way for the customer while treating us like we’re complete idiots.
It would sort of be like Apple saying that they’ve invented this new great feature for their iPhone OS called “Multi-tasking”.
Look, run your business. Do what you need to do. Don’t treat me like an idiot and pretend like you’re doing me any favors with your faux-addon-benefits which were part of the “ah, yeah, obviously that’s included” category not too long ago.
By the way, I’d rather pay $250 for my ticket and have my luggage travel for free than $200 and then have to pay $50 for my luggage. Then I don’t feel like I’m being nickel and dimed.
- May 27, 11
I have owned my new phone for just over 24 hours and where I probably shouldn’t say it’s the best phone ever, I will.
I had been using a Blackberry Storm prior to last night’s purchase of HTC’s Droid Incredible. This was my first experience with the phone:
My wife and I were on our way to see a community theater production in Concord, MA. We were at the Verizon store and were going to finish there and head right to the theater. The salesperson at the store handed me the Incredible after she had tranferred my contacts.
I found the search “fixed” button and typed the name of the theater company. I got the Google search results, touched the Map link and then the Navigation link. Just like that, I had turn-by-turn navigation to the theater. This whole process for me took less time than it took to type this paragraph. I had no documentation and had not used the phone.
It was intuitive and fun and cool.
2 phones ago I had an iPhone. I never really fell in love with it. That was at the beginning of it’s run. I know it’s much better now. The Storm was great for email but lacked the coolness or application support that I know the iPhone has. I wanted something in the middle and I think it has arrived.
It’s a geeky-fun phone that doesn’t feel like it’s meant for geeks. The Android Marketplace has all the apps I need, for free…I feel like I have a phone that will literally do everything I need it to do and I don’t feel dirty because I’m not supporting Apple’s closed “We know better than you” platform (I am writing this on my iPad so I still feel a little dirty).
Love it.
The name is awful. I actually felt embarrassed when I showed people today and they asked what it was called. The phone is the best out there for me. Until it isn’t.
I think I’ll change my name to Matt Awesome.
- May 27, 11
To whom it may concern:
99% of the time, if you have to ask me to be your fan, I’m probably not. Thanks to Facebook’s awesome fan mechanism, I can now be annoyed almost constantly by people who think I should become a fan of theirs.
I especially appreciate the following paraphrased Facebook interaction:
“Hey, I think you should become a fan of my sprocket company.”
“No.”
[next day]
“Hey, not sure if you accidentally answered last time but I think you should become a fan of my sprockets company.”
“Ignore.”
[next day]
“I can’t remember if I asked you to be a fan of my sprockets company, so you should, ok?”
[unfriend]
You: leave us alone. We all know you just invite all your “friends” so there is no way you forgot to ask me. If I show up again, that means I said no. No means no. You don’t want me to be your fan anyway. You just want my “friends” to see that I’m a fan so they might become a fan too. Leave us alone.
Facebook: learn. How about an option to ignore invitations from someone who is abusing the spirit of the site.
If I have something I think is important to share, it goes here, or in my status on Facebook, or on Twitter. You can consume it if you want and if not, well that’s your loss.
- Apr 17, 10
My wife and I took my older daughter (who just turned 2) to see Sesame Street Live this morning. This was her first live show and we weren’t sure how she would deal with all the glitz of the Great White Narrow Way.
Now, Noa watches Sesame Street so we had that going for us. She also dislikes loud and chaotic “situations” so we didn’t have that going for us. The show was at 10:30am and we knew there would be a large number of kids so we had that going for us. She also really dislikes loud and chaotic “situations” so…
We arrived at the arena and got to our seats with about 10 minutes to spare. So far, so good. I don’t know it the whole thing was just confusing or if she recognized the Sesame Street sign or if the amount of other kids around made her feel comfortable but she was calm, cool, and collected. We had been explaining to her for about a week what we would be doing but I don’t think that it really clicked. Then again, maybe it did.
Then…the voice of Big Bird started talking to us and told us the show would be beginning in 3 minutes. That caught her attention. It seemed like she wasn’t sure what was gonna happen. She is sitting in her very own chair, feet barely making it to the edge of the seat. Her weight barely enough to hold the seat down.
The house lights go down.
She looks a little on edge/confused.
Big Bird hits the stage.
She throws a finger (pointer, not middle) towards the stage and shouts, “BIG BIRD!” with an ear-to-ear grin. One at a time the other characters make their way out and she is announcing them all. She is having the time of her life. My wife and I are elated but neither of us can figure out why. I suspect it has something to do with us both realizing that we have a bonafied little girl.
The show was great. We all had a great time. We get in the car to come home and ask her what her favorite part was. She said matter-of-factly, “the chipmunks.”
I don’t know what show she was watching but I suppose it doesn’t really matter does it?
- Apr 13, 10
I am a 2nd child. It’s not always easy to grow up in that position. My sister is just about 3 years older than I am. When I was born she was old enough to have an established routine and a fair amount of independence.
My older daughter had just turned 1 when my younger daughter was born. She had not learned to walk yet, was barely talking yet, and really didn’t have much independence. I’m sure that it wasn’t always easy competing for mommy and daddy’s attention for either girl.
The good news is that neither girl will remember a time when they didn’t have each other. They won’t know a time when they didn’t have someone to accidentally cuddle with or learn to share with. The good news is that even though being the 2nd sister has initially been a lot of “stuff the 1st sister does,” their interests and personalities seem to be different and that’s been really cool to watch.
We’ve made it through our 2nd 1st year.
They have both made it through their 1st years.
Happy 1st Birthday Sasha.
- Apr 05, 10
So I was watching this show that had a really captivating plot. I am not going to go into too many details here because I don’t want to spoil it for you. I will say this: the plot was a little all over the place and included action, adventure, drama, celebrity cameos and more. It still kept my attention for what felt like an entire night.
It seemed we were nearing the conclusion of the story and then blammo!
I woke up. Well how does it end? I kept trying to fall asleep again to find out how but it seemed to be a futile effort. Then I realized I was the screenwriter, director, and producer. I should already know how it ends.
But I don’t.
And that sucks.
And then…
- Apr 04, 10
Maybe the addition of the iPad to my geek arsenal will motivate me to blog more. Maybe.
- Jan 21, 09
My resolution for 2010 is to write more blog posts.
Hey, if people haven’t taken down their Christmas lights yet, I can only imagine they are just leaving them up in preparation for next Christmas. If we’re going to plan ahead, I might as well make my resolutions in advance too.
- Apr 02, 08
So I’m at the doctor’s office the other day filling out the forms. Patient’s name. Patient’s address. Nice and easy.
Relationship to the patient: Father.
That’s gonna take some getting used to.
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Repositories
- 1 fork / 1 watcher / Pushed Jan 27, 12
- 1 fork / 1 watcher / Pushed Sep 01, 11
- 1 fork / 1 watcher / Pushed Jan 27, 12
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