Monthly Archives: July 2006

Word Games

Posted on July 25, 2006 by joel
I just realized I hadn't added to the record of the words Sean knows recently, so here are all the new ones I can think of that he has picked up since the last update:

Door, Clock, Eye, Diaper, Bird, Dog, Bear, Cup, Fan, Mango, Stop, Go, No, and Bob (in reference to Bob the Builder).

"Apple" is still king, but "Stop" and "Go" are getting a lot of use lately too. We play lots of games where we run around together, or dance, or I push him fast in the shopping cart, and he tells us to "Stop" and "Go". It's so cute. I think he likes that he has control over the game. It really plays into his recent attempts to be more independent and assert more control over his day-to-day stuff. He has been using a big-boy fork lately. (One of our smaller forks. those are the salad forks, right?) He's also going up and down the stairs by himself, getting on and off the furniture alone, and just generally doing his own thing. I love to see what he will do when left to his own devices. Just the other day he climbed up onto the kitchen table to drive his toy trucks around up there. Why that was better than the floor, I'll never know, but it was very sweet.

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42 Words of Wisdom: #05

Posted on July 22, 2006 by joel

"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

- Douglas Adams

I've been reading a book lately called "Origins", by Neil de Grasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith, which describes our current understanding of the origin and evolution of the universe. In general, it is written for the layman (or at least the college-educated layman, with a bit of physics background), but occasionally it slips off the deep end and it takes me a fair bit of thinking to get my mind around some of the details. When that happens, I agree with the second half of this quote - the universe really can be a bizarre and inexplicable place.

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Scenes from Space #32

Posted on July 21, 2006 by joel
No big explanation this time - just a very cool picure taken during the most recent Discovery mission to the ISS.

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An Apple a Day…

Posted on July 11, 2006 by joel
Sean's picked up a few new words in the past week, including 'tractor', 'hello' (which he says every time the phone rings), 'star', and a bunch of others that Lori has heard but I haven't heard him say yet. But 'apple' continues to be his favorite. Here's a cute little audio clip of him saying 'apple' over and over again, while he played with a decorative plastic apple.

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WoW – Moving On Up!

Posted on July 4, 2006 by joel
I hit level 57 night before last, and am slowly homing in on 60 (the current level cap). I'm getting pretty excited to experience some of the end-game content, which I've heard a lot about but have never seen - places like Blackrock Spire, Molten Core, and Black Wing Lair. I've started to play around with some of the more advanced ideas in the game, like experimenting with different talent builds and building reputation with different factions. I wish I had know about that stuff earlier, as it would have been easier to do it right from the beginning. This game gets more fun the more I play it, and I've met a few interesting people lately - including some fellow parents of little ones. If anyone out there is also playing (or thinking of playing) this game, look me up! My main character is a Tauren warrior named Kwakanu, on the Earthen Ring server. My alts are an Undead mage named Dorowen, a Tauren hunter named Gorgonzola (with her pet lion named Milkdud, which cracks Lori up), and a Troll priest named Goulash.


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And So It Begins…

Posted on July 4, 2006 by joel
Well, it's started. Sean is starting to talk, and is picking up new words pretty quickly. It's like he crossed a threshold, and now suddenly understands that everything he sees around him actually has a name! So in order to keep a record of his vocabulary, so we can look back and smile, here is the list of words he currently knows:

Mama, Dada, Up, Down, Moo, Dig, Duck, Apple, Banana, Yellow, Blue, Flower, Bye-Bye, and Ball.

"Apple" is by far his favorite. Lori's theme in the kitchen is apples, so there are apples on lots of the things in there. He walks around the kitchen pointing at everything saying "Apple! Apple!". It's really amazing. I suspect that this will stay a lot of fun until he learns how to say "what's that?". I've heard that gets old real quick. :)

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