nick.org

As I continue to adjust to life as a married man, as a father, and as an employee with signficant responsibility (all of which have happened in the last two years) I find myself slowly making peace with the new definition of "my time."

In light of my recent realization, I've set some new, reasonable goals for myself:

- maximize play-time with Jerry
- one new Kanji per week
- one hour of dedicated exercise per month
- one book per month

Progress, of the best kind, is comparatively slow. Great results cannot be achieved at once; and we must be satisfied to advance in life as we walk, step by step.

- Samuel Smiles

I spent four hours on Thursday with Jerry at his new pre-school, Nadeshiko Kids, which is run out of the home of our former mid-wife. Jerry consistently put toys in his mouth - which resulted in the toys being gently removed and washed. Sachiko recommend that we consider giving Jerry a pacifier so that he can fulfill his need to chew and learn that the toys themselves are not appropriate for chewing on.

We've never pushed a pacifier with Jerry before so coming home from work and seeing him run around with one was quite a shock. It is interesting that he is quickly learning that the pacifier is a substitute for chewing on the toys - it isn't something he needs in general. I do worry whether it will be habit-forming - but since he loves to talk and can't talk well with it in his mouth, I think the chances are low.

This is a great post: http://willprice.blogspot.com/2007/10/burn-boats.html

Admittedly, I haven't done one in a while, but in retrospect these tips are very helpful.

On a whim, I upgraded to MT 4.x. It is quite a bit more spiffy but it also seems a little slower... more to come, after work. ;)

The quartet continues in the zany tradition!

I took the last week off from Isilon to spend it with my family. My brother-in-law and sister were in town for the week with their three boys, Andrey, Matthew, and Nathan. Katrina came in for two days, mom & dad were here for the week, and Zack took a few days off work. It was a great week of reunion and fun.

The highlight was having lots of time to spend with Jerry. Jerry has bonded strongly with me and I found myself being pulled in one direction or another - he is really beginning to assert himself and exercise his power over me. As expected, this leads to a natural clash of wills. I've had some great examples of that:

The comb: I didn't want Jerry to put a comb in his mouth. He indicated he wanted to play with the comb, so I handed it to him - it immediately went in the mouth. I took it out, told him not to put it in his mouth, and gave it back. Boom! In the mouth. This repeated 2 or 3 times until I finally put the comb in my back pocket. Jerry was upset but after I had him calmed down I brought out the comb again. He indicated that it wasn't supposed to go in his mouth and held it tightly the rest of the evening - without it going in his mouth.

The mixer: We went to Fred Meyer on Sunday and Jerry got 3 new matchbox cars! One of them happened to be a cement mixer. I didn't realize that the mixer apparatus easily comes off and is just right for a young boy's mouth. Jerry demonstrated this to me very quickly. Of course, I didn't want the mixer in Jerry's mouth. This scenario has continued to play itself out over several days - Jerry typically shows me when the mixer is in his mouth; I promptly go to remove the mixer but he often does it for me.

He has had a cold the last few days and woke up with a fever on Tuesday morning. Tuesday night I spent holding him and laying with him, so I was _very_ tired - which means I couldn't play with him much at all last night (which makes me feel sad, just thinking about it.)

This darn thing called "work" keeps me from spending time with my son!