a post

so what happened to push me to post for the first time in eons?  my 15 month old daughter asked for a kiss for the first time, and was very cute about it.  she had a “this is a pucker but i don’t quite know how to make one” face.  so i kissed her on the nose.  i will remember that for a long, long time.

what i learned from the parenting book i read:

“every baby starts life as a little savage.  he is completely selfish and self-centered.  he wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother’s attention, his playmate’s toy, his uncle’s watch.  deny him these once, and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness, which would be murderous were he not so helpless.  he is, in fact, dirty.  he has no morals, no knowledge, no skills.  this means that all children – not just certain children – are born delinquent.  if permitted to continue in the self-centered world of his infancy, given free reign to his impulsive actions to satisfy his wants, every child would grow up a criminal: a thief, a killer, or a rapist.”

Minnesota Crime Commission, probably circa 1960

first solid food!

watch the whole thing

Stop Motion Piano And Drums

kiddo: the chuckle strikes again

not a bunny

i suspect that it was a good thing we were on an airboat at the time that i took this picture.

what i wanted to post on the 15th

earlier today i was walking with cady down the street amy’s grandma lives on.  we got back from the post office and no one else was home yet so we sat out on the swing in the back yard and panted.

it’s hot here in florida.  only mid 80s, but it feels hotter because of the mid 60s-70s we’re used to in chattanooga.  and the sun is closer here, too.  like a dork, i cut my hair really short the day before we came here.  i look cool if you don’t notice that my scalp is pink.

back to the swing.

i was watching the sky across the street and trying to figure out if the circling birds were turkey vultures or black vultures.  (later consultation of a bird book confirmed that they were black vultures.)  it struck me, like some devious lightning bolt of inappropriate humor, that they were circling over a neighborhood comprised of many, many retired folks.  don’t tell me that you can’t see the humor.  and if you know me, you’re not surprised.

then, because i wanted to tell people about it – i think it’s hilarious – i started trying to think of a justification for that thought.  i mean, if you’re going to say that vultures are circling over florida, you have to at least try to be nice about it.  and i came up with this insight (which i actually think is a good analogy):

the vultures remind me of this area’s overabundance of cosmetic surgeons, vasectomy doctors, and purveyors of products that prey on the aged.  i’m not kidding; within two miles down the main drag here i saw plenty of places you can buy a new face, better toys, and bad lawsuits.  i’ve never, in my life, seen such a concentration of human vultures.  by the time i was finished thinking of the analogy, i actually didn’t feel bad at all about the birds.

later on in the day, amy and i were walking and we saw an anhinga in a creek here.  click on the link.  they’re cool birds.

in case you were wondering

marriage is totally worth it.

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it was beautiful last night

more babyness

alright, so she’s probably not singing, but there are sure times when it sounds like she’s trying. like yesterday, when she sang herself to sleep.