Daley Ponderings

I'm very much behind on the blog.  But I have kept the pocket notes safely typed up in my email.  So here goes. In June, the kids and I made a trip to Florida to visit my parents, and my sister and her kids visited, too. 6/14 - Joy, "Mommy! I saw a dinosaur!"  (It was a... (More)

5/1 - Joy playing with even/odd dot cards.  Didn't quite get the concept but sometimes was lucky, so I praised the correct answers.  Then 6/2 - much more consistently correct. 5/1 - Jeremiah, watching the kids in karate class, copying them - doing punches from the "en guarde"... (More)

Got a bunch of spam comments and then when I was looking at posts, the boys pointed out that my last post was a month ago and I said "trip to DC goes in a separate post"...  So here we go. When we went into downtown to see the sights, we split up into smaller groups.  Jonathan,... (More)

3/30 - Jeremiah started cooing.  He also can make minimal forward progress along the bed when waking up. Joy says "my do it" for many things.  She also pronounces "water" correctly now instead of saying "wow".  She's also really good at remembering to say thank you. (Sounds... (More)

Oh, yes.  It has been half a year since my last pocket notes post... 9/6 - Joy says "yum" and "yummy", "all done/gone" (sounds like ah-doh), "where shoe?", and "mine" (sounds like my) 9/25 - Faith reading the Bible to Joy: "When you want Mommy to cuddle with you but she can't, you... (More)

Last catchup ended on the weekend of the fire company banquet.  That weekend was also the beginning of the new adventure.  Two different people called up to ask about looking to buy our house.  No, not the one we're fixing up to sell.  The one we're living in.  Well, ok,... (More)

I came across yet another version of a distributed social network, this one with hardware.  FreedomBox Foundation is working on figuring out how to make tons of tiny little web servers that take out the centralized model.  The New York Times has a decent article on explaining why... (More)

Well, in the three weeks since I last posted, Joy has made major progress in mobility and the rest of the household is still working to adjust! 9/11 - Joy started crawling longer distances with a cross-pattern belly crawl. 9/13 - Every time we go into PIttsburgh, we cross the Allegheny... (More)

Noah (while we started the woodstove): Can fire do anything to metal? Dad: It can melt it, if it is hot enough. Noah (wide-eyed): So, you could melt the metal into a sword? Noah then relays the conversation to Jonathan, who is taking a bath. After some discussion about where one might get... (More)

Faith has started calling Jonathan, "Ohnny-int"  This is related to how she says medicine ("meddy-int") and other words that end in /n/. She also says her own name, which sounds unfortunately rather like "Hate" but the /t/ is a bit softer, maybe halfway between that and "Hathe".... (More)

I'd been having these strange contractions for a few days. Not the simple Brackston-Hicks that I have throughout pregnancy that feel tight but do not hurt. Not crampy labor contractions, either. They were very tight and they hurt. They came usually when I was sitting – on the couch or... (More)

1/20 - Jonathan, as usual, singing while he plays and works.  This time it was, "Come, Tom Bombadil, Tom Bombadil.  Come, Tom Bombadil..." 1/22 - When boys have a tea party:  Noah, Faith and I were playing with Faith's tea set.  Noah said he couldn't eat his soup because... (More)

I haven't done one of those Facebook lists in a while, and a couple friends filled this one out, so I thought I'd join in.  This list apparently comes from the BBC, who said that the average person has only read 6 of these.  Seems like a small number to me, but since the average... (More)

This morning, we drove up to the birth clinic where Jonathan and Noah were born.  Their midwife has retired (she wanted to before Noah was born, but actually did right before Faith was born) and her daughter has taken over the job.  We had met C before, when she was helping out her... (More)

Inspired by an article in Family Fun magazine, I developed a fun motivator for bedtime cleanup that really works.  Before, there would be lots of complaining, dilly-dallying and nagging.  Now the house is clean every night before bed and the job is done quickly!  Here's how it... (More)