My First Mother's Day

June 1, 2012 11:30 am
This year was my first Mother's Day, and it was a good one. I got a new Willowtree figurine of a mom, dad, and baby, and Heather signed my card with her footprint (in green food coloring). Kyle took some pictures of my baby and me:
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I know, I'm blinking in this next one, but it's so very Heather that I'm posting it anyway. I dare you not to smile!

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Heather: 7 months

May 31, 2012 8:24 am

Heather has been so busy these last weeks! Our little girl is growing and learning like nobody's business. Here are some notes:

  • She is totally mobile now. It's not crawling, but I don't know what to call it, exactly. It's an inchworm sort of thing. See for yourself:

    She doesn't normally fuss while she's doing it, but I'd been trying to get her to scoot for 5 minutes, and she was a li'l bit grumpy. This video (and all the following pictures) was taken 5 days ago, and she's already much more coordinated at it. When she has a goal (see #9), she can really book it! Along the same lines, she can pivot really easily, and it's pretty fun to see her turn in your direction and start coming for you.

  • Heather's doing a lot of exploring these days. She spends her time basically figuring out different ways to interact with the world, and it's way fun to watch. She looks around a lot, and once something's within reach, she's turning it and twisting it and eating it and experimenting with it.
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  • Going along with that, her fine motor skills are really developing. She'll often stop and stare at her hands as she bends and twists her fingers, and she's getting really good at manipulating smaller things. She can get her binky into her mouth now with no problems, and it's one of her favorite toys.
  • She can sit pretty well now, though I don't ever leave her when she's sitting because she'll reach for something off to the side and topple right over.
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  • Heather loves buttons. On shirts, pants, whatever. She can't get enough of touching them.
  • She laughs. Well, chuckles. She can also click her tongue, which she's very proud of. It's pretty funny, but I haven't caught it on video yet. Sorry.
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  • We had to lower the crib for the first time on Saturday because she was grabbing the top of the side and trying to pull herself up. (She can't pull to a stand yet, but she's pulled up onto her knees several times, and it makes her look like such a big girl!)
  • I think she's a bit shy. When other people are around, she's much more reserved than when it's just Kyle and me. Not so animated, not so vocal. Who would've guessed, right?
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  • She's developed a fascination with electrical cords and the bookshelf. I'm trying to teach her "no," but it's a slow process. 🙂
  • Heather can now bang objects together. Well, not really together, I guess. But she loves to stand in her exersaucer and smack everything with her links. Even when I read to her, she'll sometimes hit the book with her binky, which is apparently hilarious. (Also hilarious: closing books. You can't usually turn more than a page or two before she's closing the book again.)
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  • Speaking of the exersaucer, she now understands that when she drops things over the side, they go down to the floor, and she'll contort herself trying to see them.
  • Along with the object permanence she's developing, though, we're getting a bit of separation anxiety, I think. Personally, I don't understand why thinking that I don't exist when she can't see me is better than knowing I'm just elsewhere, but I hear that's how it works. Anyway, I can't hide on the nursery floor to see if she's really going to go to sleep anymore because she pulls the bumper down to look for me. And she was completely traumatized when I took a shower this morning. Good times.
  • Heather loves Henrietta. Kyle does the pre-bedtime storytime every night, and when I bring her Henrietta, she reaches out for her and snuggles into her. Sometimes she laughs. Cutest thing ever.
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We sure love our little bug!

Erin - age 15 - stuck in hamper

May 24, 2012 10:01 am

She may now have a law degree, but at 15 Erin still struggled against the mighty forces of the plastic hamper.  My favorite comment from Mom: "She's supposed to be smart."

Enjoy!

I also enjoy that Erin had apparently been toddling around like this for some time.  Enough time for Mom to find the video camera and get it working and then say "Okay Erin, now let's see you go around the room in it again."

Hooray for ExifTool

May 21, 2012 5:58 pm

Ever realize that the date on your camera is wrong and has been for months?  Wish you could correct the timestamps on all those pictures you took?  ExifTool can help (available for Linux/Windows/Mac).

I discovered yesterday that I hadn't updated our camera for Daylight Saving Time, so all the pictures since March 11 have been 1 hour off, not dire, but annoying.  I've had trips in the past where I forgot to change the timezone, but didn't know this tool existed, so the times on those pictures are just wrong.

In Linux I combined ExifTool with the "find" command to locate the photos taken after March 11 and adjust their time data by one hour so that they're correct:

#find . -type f -newermt 2012-03-11 -iname "*.jpg" -print -exec exiftool -AllDates+=1 -overwrite_original_in_place '{}' \;

I'll just stash this here for future reference, as I will probably need it again.