minnow

About 20 Science bloggers and readers met at the North Carolina Zoo yesterday for a day of animals and fun. Minnow was the youngest, but not the only, child in attendance. And I think she was quite happy to meet some other children-of-bloggers, particularly the 22-month-old son of James Hrynyshyn. They can have their own meet-up in a few years and commiserate. Pictures and details below the below the fold. The group with their backs to the gorillas, who had their backs to us. The animal highlight of the day came at the elephant enclosure. We happened to arrive at feeding time and got to see…
I see so much in Minnow that reminds me of myself as a child. She's enthralled by books and loves to put things into containers in a very particular (mysterious) order often stopping to take things out and then put them back in until things are just right. I loved to read and organize things (still do) and spent hours playing librarian as a child. So I could argue for nature, in that she's following in my footsteps. Or I could argue for nurture in that she (like childhood me) is surrounded by books and a mom who loves to keep things organized. But then there's the whole issue of the mac n'…
Minnow discovers sand and explores gravitational versus turbulent effects upon releasing a handful into the wind. When we got home, we read Bagnold's "The Physics of Blown Sand and Desert Dunes." No, not really...we saved it for bedtime! :) Below the fold, Minnow demonstrates some classical mechanics principles at the playground. Maybe this could be a late entry to the Accretionary Wedge carnival....
Minnow is really fun these days. She loves to "help" me unload the dishwasher, fold the laundry, carry things, and close doors. She is also starting to really enjoy reading books. She's not just cuddling with me while I read, and she's not just trying to eat them anymore. She's starting to point at pictures and want to turn pages, and occasionally even laugh at the funny animal sounds I make while reading them.* So I thought I'd share some of Minnow's current favorite books. An early and continued favorite of ours is Moo, Baa, La La La by Sandra Boynton. I've actually had the words to this…
On Saturday, my dearest Minnow turned one. It's hard to believe that it was already a year ago that she was born after an mostly uneventful pregnancy and a natural, and manageable, labor and delivery. She was so tiny, and so fragile, and it seemed like all I could do was hold her and watch her and marvel in her. And now, just 52 weeks later, she's a little person who walks and babbles and has distinct likes (peaches, her stuffed polar bear, and falling asleep in Mommy's arms) and dislikes (changing into jammies, getting her head rinsed off). She can happily play for 20 minutes or so without…
Minnow's big adventure this weekend was attending the 2nd Annual NC Science Blogging Conference (and staying with one of my college roomies). In the morning she went to the discussion on ethics in science blogging, lead by the incomparable Janet Stemwedel. Afterwards she had a little bonus discussion. Then Minnow participated in a panel on Gender and Race in Science: Online and Offline, moderated by the excellent Zuska. Other panel participants were Karen Ventii of Science to Life and Pat Campbell of Fairer Science. After a great box lunch, Minnow went to Dave Munger's session on Building…
There. Now I've contributed to the clogging of the internet with another pointless youtube video. Don't I feel special. But I thought that readers of this blog might enjoy seeing Minnow's newfound ability to walk. She was starting to take tentative steps in mid-December, but the fluid in her ears really set her back for a while. Nonetheless, the urge to walk is strong, and by New Year's day she was able to walk from one side of a room to another.
Introduction: A wise friend has told me more than once that "child development is not a linear process." For example, teeth come in batches, often in fours separated by a few months of non-teething. As another example, just because Minnow is sleeping peacefully in her crib as I started to type this doesn't mean that she will be a peaceful sleeper the next night. As a matter of fact, our journey toward the mythical sleeping through the night* has been anything but peaceful...and anything but linear. Null Hypothesis: Child development, specifically duration of night-time sleep, is not a…
There are less than two weeks of Minnow photos remaining before the grand finale. A couple of donors haven't yet made specific photo requests, leaving me with a lot of leeway in picking photos. If you donated to my DonorsChoose challenge and haven't requested a subject, there's still time. Here's a photo from the archives (taken in June). Actually, the pink is the antibiotic (for an ear infection) she managed to spit back out. I suppose I could have done some spectrometry and figured out what fraction of the teaspoon dose she wasn't getting, but instead I did the laundry and was relieved to…
My mom has been frenetically cleaning out her house the past few months, in order to make up for saving everything for the past few decades. (un)fortunately for us, she's not making many decisions about what saved stuff should be passed on and what should just be tossed. So the end result is that Minnow (and Fish) have now had a chance to examine the remains of my 6th grade science project. Original title: Insulating with snow
I'm a little late today, but this photo is awesome. And it was highly supervised.
Minnow woke up yesterday morning snuggled in my arms. We rolled over and nudged Fish awake as Minnow happily wiggled between her parents. After a few minutes, she decided she wanted a little something to eat, so I obliged. When she was finished, she rolled away from me and let out a sigh of pure satisfaction. I looked down at her and she had a huge smile on - I swear it was the sort of smile one has when they've just had really good sex. She just seemed blissful. Minnow's good mood got me thinking about what a perfect day would look like in her eyes. It's hard to know for sure because her…
...because I just got a call from Minnow's daycare saying that she'd accidentally been given two foods that she hadn't yet been introduced to: Orange juice and cheese crackers. Apparently, a substitute teacher didn't bother to read the menu circling which foods Minnow was and wasn't eating. So, what's the big deal about a little snack. No less a mainstream source than babycenter.com has this to say about introducing citrus fruits:"Citrus fruits -- such as oranges, grapefruits, and tangerines -- are very acidic and can cause stomach upset or diarrhea in babies. That's why doctors recommend…
Today Minnow and I are flying home to Mystery City and she'll be wearing her costume on the plane. This picture is fulfulling another request for MamaScientist, who writes a great blog Mother of All Scientists, whose Bean is just six months old, and who made a contribution to my DonorsChoose challenge. Speaking of DonorsChoose, today is the very last day of the challenge. From where I'm sitting I can't see whether or not we've made our goal. But if you look over on the sidebar, you'll see that we've either made the goal or are very close to it. DonorsChoose will kick in a 10% completion…
I'd imagine you are probably all sick of hearing about the DonorsChoose challenge by now, but I'll admit that I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of response I've gotten from you guys. Sure we've raised almost $500, but all of that money has come from just 7 people, including me. Feedburner says that this blog has 116 RSS subscribers. If each of those subscribers donated just $5 (less than two Starbucks drinks), we'd easily reach the goal and help dozens of students. Apparently handprints from Minnow and the chance to win prizes from Seed aren't enough to entice you to donate, but maybe this…