a healthy PC

The nine-month visit has already come and gone. Happy nine month birthday PC!

This was the first checkup I could not attend because of work so if you want details you'll have to ask my other half. The all important babystats are of course pictured, as is tradition.

PC's new mobility, as this guy describes, is an absolute joy for him and us.

best friends

milestones

The crawling has begun. More accurately, the scooting has begun.

Top teeth are breaking through. The Prince has been resilient and not too whiny throughout. If it continues to work out like this, he'll have two top and two bottom teeth soon--our little chipmunk.

play

What do kids gain from play, cognitively and socially? Today this article was sent to me by a former student. The article (and her research) asks questions about how much children should play, as opposed to the pursuit of more "practical" endeavors. Are we giving children enough opportunities to "play"? How does play change as they become older? What obstacles stand in the way of giving children as much play as they apparently need to thrive?

baby gap

childrens' songs that are depressing

Clementine (in a cavern):

Oh my darling, oh my darling,
Oh my darling Clementine
You are lost and gone forever,
Dreadful sorry, Clementine.

You Are My Sunshine:

The other night dear as I laid sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms
But when I woke dear I was mistaken
And I hung my head and I cried

Ring around the Rosie (plague references?)

Ring around the rosy
A pocketful of posies
"Ashes, Ashes"
We all fall down!

the amazing race

race day

Since we were out of the baby race on Sunday my attention turned toward the actual basketball game. Our team is very very young this year, so we haven't been expecting big things, but their play lately has inspired bigger crowds and a new group of believers. The St. Louis Billikins were in town on baby race day, and they are coached by Rick Majerus, formerly of Utah, and up until he returned to coaching one of my favorite basketball commentators. Unfortunately for us, the same analytical skills that make Majerus an interesting observer of hoops apparently make him a good coach, and St. Louis shut our offense down and won the game by seven.

At halftime I went to the starting line of the race to snap a few pics of my friends Thad and Sahara. As it turned out, Thad was partner-less for the race, and needed a surrogate, so I knelt down at half court to try to coax little S (age 7 mos.) across the finish line. Enjoy the baby race goodness.


T and lucky #17


she crawls backwards


this guy stopped just as he was about to win


then recovered and won!


as the others lay strewn across the gym floor

Lazy Sunday

Haiku

Sunshine in Richmond
Exploring gardens outside
Without eating leaves.

no racin'

The baby race is off.  Not cancelled, exactly, and we're not avoiding it because PC can't crawl yet (that was never an obstacle for us). It's off because it's full!

Apparently, my procrastination about calling and registering cost us. Not wanting to let down, and unable to accept a baby race without PC after having by now told EVERYONE about it, I pressed the ticket counter employee a little bit, until eventually she told me there were 19 babies signed up and that Ukrop's wanted all the information no later than yesterday. You have to register b/c the grocery store with the big prize wants your info so they can spam you with coupons I suppose.

After a little more back-and-forth that involved me trying to work PC in as a "sub" (babies will get sick, I argued) I gave up. Not an argument I was going to win. When she finally said "I'm sorry, but I've been asked not to accept any more entries" the game was up. I'm going to insist this year's baby race winner*, whenever noted in print, have an asterisk by their name.

*did not compete against Achter baby

the view from here

The Hasselbecks, brought to you by Dreft

PC is asleep so I did a google search for baby blogs. Here's a short list of finds:

***The celebrity baby blog will give you the dish on JLO's upcoming twins. With pics and topics like which celebrities use cloth diapers.

***Survivor / Rosie nemesis Elizabeth Hasselbeck claims in this week's Newsweek that she only took six weeks of maternity because otherwise "her side of the story would never be told." The Hasselbecks' baby blog has a section on laundry, cuz apparently their blog has a sponsor. She also claims that reports about her being mean are the result of liberal media bias.

***Eight tips for taking photos of babies.

***Parents with two kids sometimes do blog. I like the design of this one. Food for thought.

rocking the yamaha

yes we can song

This isn't a political blog, but when PC saw this video, he was enthralled. Maybe you'll find it interesting, too.

To PC: this video inspired the first political campaign contribution your family has ever made. Two overly-expensive t-shirts with Obama's image on them are in the mail.