Programming note

Due to an adjustment problem with a beard trimmer this morning, for the foreseeable future the role of "Big Daddy" will be played by this guy:



We apologize to our audience; despite having the goofy grin and coffee stained teeth, our proprietor's understudy doesn't have that certain "je ne sais child molester" you've come to expect from your usual blogger.

...of course, the real question is, Theo just woke up from his nap, and what will HE think?

Cute overload

I have three or four posts saved that I just can't seem to finish. Everything I see and do these days seems to want to become a blog post. So hopefully in the next day or two, I'll find my focus and FINISH something.

In the meantime, I've finally been updating my pages of Theo photos. Enjoy a taste of the cute we get to live with every day.

Read these

I just wanted to point out two articles I've finished and found enlightening in the June dead tree copy of The Atlantic.

First, James Fallows (whose blog is a must-read for anyone who shares my interest in China) has an article about pollution and "Green" industry in China.

I've thought for some time now that "Green" technology and industry, combined with China's ever-increasing in demand for energy, provides a market that could be a driver for US prosperity on par with the IT/communications revolution, if government and business could see the opportunity. Unfortunately, too many people would rather see the environment in terms of public morality or as a way to score political points, so it appears Europe and Asia will lead the field. I'm sure when we're done arguing they'll be willing to sell their advances to us, if the dollar is still worth anything.

The second is Joshua Green's article about Barack Obama's campaign and how it has changed fundraising. It provides an answer to anyone (like me) who has ever wondered "What is the point of social networking?"

Why I don't say every word that pops in my head

I took Theo for a long-ish walk today down Lower Thames St. and back, because we hadn't been down that way in a while. I'd forgotten, until we passed by the yachting center that this weekend is the Newport Spring Boat Show. Not to be confused with the Newport International Boat Show, which is of course in the fall. Phhht. Landlubbers. Luckily, it was early enough in the festivities that I could still navigate the streets without being forced into the street by hordes of old men in white pants and Top-Siders; but I doubt we'll walk that direction again this weekend.

As we passed by the just-barely-starting festivities, I could see that a marketing team from show sponsor HUMMER had set up their booth in one of the parking lots with several of their vehicles and plenty of product literature. They looked kinda bored, so I briefly considered making their day by stopping and screaming over the fence...

HAVE FUN FEEDING YOUR FAMILIES WHEN GAS IS 8 BUCKS A GALLON, PIGS! DOES YOUR IN-TANK NAVIGATION SYSTEM HAVE LISTINGS FOR THE UNEMPLOYMENT OFFICE?

...Because I'm a representative of my wife and by extension the entire USN family, instead of pretending to be an ELF commando, I just kept walking.

And as I thought about it, these guys are probably selling HUMMERs in the right place. If you're coming to Newport with the thought of buying a boat, you don't care if the car runs on $8 gasoline, condor eggs, or the blood of hobbits -- you can probably afford it, and an H2 or 6000SUX or whatever is probably the perfect ground transport to park in the back of your shadow yacht.

What gets me...

The thought, from a couple places, that has brought me near tears in the descriptions of the earthquake in China: "...most of the children involved in the earthquake would have been their parents' only child."

So, so unnecessary.

Proof that a year has passed

Daddy is finally getting motivated enough to remove the infant seat and install the toddler car seat in Otto the car. He's probably borderline on the weight limit, but it's been very hard for me to give up the convenience of carrying the seat back and forth. It's also been nice to have a seat that easily straps into other people's cars when we're out visiting. It's been on plane and car from Chicago to Mississippi to New York to Virginia.

But we have the new seat and it's ready to go, so it's probably going to be installed this afternoon. To mark the occasion, I took a couple photos of Theo yesterday after his last ride in the infant seat.

For comparison, here he is just less than a year ago, coming home from the hospital, his first trip in the seat:



I had to check the manual to make sure it was rated for a kid who weighed just a tad over 5 lb at the time.

Here he is yesterday, after his last ride in the seat. He may take a while to get used to the new one, but I'm guessing he'll be more comfortable:

A YEAR? Says who?

Theo is officially a year old today, although with Ruth's work schedule we're not going to do any celebrating until the weekend, and even that will be extremely low-key. First birthdays are usually about adults getting together to watch a kid who hasn't quite figured out how to use his hands yet smear frosting all over his face. Why have a huge party when the guest of honor doesn't quite know what's going on?

Still, we made the day as special as we could, starting with swim class (his favorite time of the week), then lunch with his Mommy, and finally a late afternoon walk strapped to Daddy's chest. He's not quite sure what to make of his new jogging stroller yet (a post all its own, maybe later this week), so I think most of our walks will still use the Moby wrap and for now the stroller will be used mainly for Daddy's exercise and times when I just don't feel like carrying 20+ extra pounds.

Having a year behind us has reinforced all the contradictory thoughts that come with being parents. On the one hand, he's definitely not much of a baby anymore, and we're sad to see the trappings and rituals of baby-hood fall away.

On the other hand, most of what we're losing was annoying, inconvenient or both at the time -- would we really want to spend the rest of our lives with a helpless, noisy 20 pound ball of squirm who never lets us have a full night's sleep, can only speak in screams and needs us to wipe his ass 5 times a day? (Note that this is also a handy list of why we own cats rather than dogs.) So thank goodness he's growing up -- Come to think of it, why isn't he in college yet?

One thing the family accountant is VERY happy to be done with is $20 a week worth of POWDERED MILK. We'll be buying a lot more full-fat cow juice than we ever have before, but even at close to $4 a gallon for non-organic regular we're coming out WAY ahead.

The things we want to remember about having a one-year old? The excited yelp and madcap crawl to the front door when Mommy comes home. The huge grin he gives to anyone we meet who smiles at him. The "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH" noise he makes to test the echoes in an enclosed space. The way he crawls up to our shoulders and gives us a hug before we put him in his crib at bedtime. The way he smiles at me when I put him down for a nap, right before the cry of protest when he realizes that I'm going to darken the room. The singsong noises when he first wakes up in the morning, and the huge smile we get when we pick him up out of the crib.

By the way, kid: You're not getting my cell phone or my laptop anytime soon. Get over this now and life will get easier for both of us...

Finish breakfast before you read this

Another installment of things I never thought I'd say out loud, changing table edition:

"Theo! DO NOT TOUCH your filthy ass! OH, jeez...well, grab a wipe...wait, don't, NO! DO NOT PUT YOUR HAND IN YOUR MOUTH!"

Another reason to drive

I'm not a fan of the current system of air traveler screening, but because I assume it's not going anywhere, the new passenger classification system being tested in airports by TSA seems to be a good idea. Average time in line of five minutes? Why, I can be oppressed and harassed in half the time! Sign me up!

A good idea, that is, until I read the details, which include a "family line."

I'd happily use the line if we were "That Family" -- the exhausted folks who look like a herd of urban homeless carrying their baby while using a stroller as a shopping cart, kids in hard-to-remove shoes running every which way, the two bags apiece full of the mountain of Stuff they can't possibly be without for a two hour flight.

Our family, on the other hand puts a premium on having LESS STUFF, and we're experienced travelers to boot. When we get to the airport, our dangerously radical LESS STUFF policy makes it easy to get through security and around the terminal. So after we check our suitcase you'll see us with just two small bags, a car seat and baby Theo strapped to Daddy's chest. Metal items and outerwear are packed away before we approach security and the adults are wearing sandals. (Yes James, I'm that guy in the airport wearing navy blue Crocs. I'm also a 6'3" 225lb man with a baby strapped to his chest, so questions about my dignity have already been answered.)

So now when we reach the airport, we'll be funneled into the "family lane" along with the other unfortunate breeders that we've spent every airport visit until now trying to avoid. It might feel like special treatment for all those folks who seem to think they're special for figuring out how to reproduce, but we will be the rare travelers whose time in security probably increases. Don't even get me started on what that lane will look like around the family travel holidays.

We could buck the system, be the rebels who try to skip the family lane and mingle with the regular travelers; but we know from previous experiences with eschewing so-called "family friendly" accommodations that it wouldn't be worth the dirty looks and "helpful suggestions." I can even predict what will be said...

Sir, the family lane is right over there.

Sir, next time you'd probably be more comfortable over in the family lane.

Oh, look who is too special for the family lane.

Sir, I asked you to remove your shoes, not your pants.

They're just so picky.

If you're thinking I'm trying really hard to come up with a rationale for not flying anymore, you'd be right. I could barely justify the mental and financial costs of air travel when it was just me and Ruth -- now that Theo is along for the ride and such a generally easygoing traveler, I'm hoping it will be a while before you find me back in the air.

I'm sorry if I didn't seem to have a point here, but the best solution for writer's block is to write what's in my head anyway, no matter how inane. I don't normally publish "writer's block" posts but it seemed like such a waste to write all this and not share it...

Point/Counterpoint

Finally, commentary both Theo and I can enjoy. They make as much sense as anything else I've seen this year.