Old MacDonald had a...

Arghhh!

Sitting here at work with OldMcDonald Had A Farm running through my
head constantly! Why don't they warn you about these things when you
sign up to become a parent?!

E - I - E - I - OOoooohhhhhh!

roll over...

so they all rolled over and one fell out...

Gosh, so many milestones in such a short time. A couple weeks ago we started Ryan on solids (if you can call oatmeal gruel a solid) and he's been happily wolfing that down with his milk meals. Then a few days ago we moved him to just 4 feeds a day, and he is pretty much sleeping 11 hours straight at night now. And... today... he started rolling over! Diana said he did it a few days ago, but I wasn't around, so as the official record keeper (aka blogger) I had to be around to see it. It certainly looks difficult, but the little man makes it around from his back to his belly and then smiles his head off. Rolling from front to back has only been seen once, but now we know he can do it, anyway.

Well, this pretty much means the change table is a dangerous thing now so we're gonna pack it away. Also, he's been rolling onto his belly in his sleep which he doesn't like and ends up crying. Life's tough when you're getting mobile.

As for the rest of my life: well, work is going great (love the environment and the people are fun to work with)... Diana is still a wonderful wife... and everything else seems to be on pause. By this I am referring to the fact that the lens I ordered for my camera 3 months ago still has no arrival date and my work laptop which was meant to be returned to me last Friday still hasn't been repaired/returned... which I guess means that my patience is being matured.

sweet dreams

sleeping son, so cute //
we try to awaken you //
and you sweetly smile \\
-- takayama-haiku, 2006

(yes, i know, there's no seasonal word so its not strict haiku, and i'm using the fake formal 5-7-5... forgive me literary puritans!)

Yes, Ryan fell asleep during his feed a few days ago (nothing new) and when we tried to wake him up he just gave us this cute little smile and stayed asleep! What a cute little kid!

chillin' and strollin'

This morning Diana and I went stroller shopping again to look for a new 3-wheel stroller for Ryan. Diana did an awesome job negotiating and we walked away with a good deal! We got a Quinny Speedi SX, which will make my mom proud. Why? Because Quinny is a Dutch brand! Awesome. Of course, we would have been respecting Ryan's heritage with any other brand... cause every other brand is made in China (and he _is_ half Chinese!)!

Anyway, the Quinny looks like a good compromise in a lot of ways. It is semi-jogging capable, and yet also has some carrying capabilities and is ... um, reasonably light enough for Diana to put it in the back of the Civic... it looks cool and it was reasonably priced... if by reasonably priced you accept the fact that anything to do with children is insanely ridiculously overpriced.

I think the reason for this pricing issue is because people know that you secretly want the best of the best for your kid but often decide just to get the best you can afford that doesn't look like it is going to cause injury, death or bad morals in your kid. Perhaps the solution is for all parents to start acting like they really don't mind if their kid drinks from discarded tin cans and wears garbage bags for nappies... shops will suddenly begin to think that their market is gone and start lowering prices accordingly!

Oh, and last night I got a chance to hang out with my friends, Sam and Dave. Was good to hang out with 'the guys', eat pizza, drink coke, watch DVDs and emit gas. Not sure what the other guys did. haha haha ... hm, my 'delete' key isn't working... oops. Guys, if you read this... I'm joking about the gas! (or am I?)

pretty but annoying

This time of year the wildflowers are blooming, the grass is growing and being mown, the trees are mating and ... the allergies are going nuts.

Plus, CALM is doing those burn-offs or whatever, and as a result the whole city is covered in smog. I hate smog. It stuffs me up just as bad as pollen. Stupid CALM... can't we prevent bushfires in a more smoke-free way? *sigh*

Beauty in the Light

In a moment of interesting serendipity, a post in the Utata group, a flickr group that I am a member of, directed me to a section from a book by C.S. Lewis (whose book, Miracles, I am currently reading) called The Great Divorce.

In this passage, a painter has found himself in Heaven, and confronted by its great beauty is wishing he could paint it:


'...I should like to paint this.'

'I shouldn't bother about that just at present if I were you.'

'Look here; isn't one going to be allowed to go on painting?'

'Looking comes first.'

'But I've had my look. I've seen just what I want to do. God!--I wish I'd thought of bringing my things with me!'

The Spirit shook his head, scattering light from his hair as he did so. 'That sort of thing's no good here,' he said.

'What do you mean?' said the Ghost.

'When you painted on earth--at least in your earlier days--it was because you caught glimpses of Heaven in the earthly landscape.The success of your painting was that it enabled others to see the glimpses too. But here you are having the thing itself. It is from here that the messages came. There is no good telling us about this country, for we see it already. In fact we see it better than you do.'

...

'Why, if you are interested in the country only for the sake of painting it, you'll never learn to see the country.'

'But that's just how a real artist is interested in the country.'

'No. You're forgetting,' said the Spirit. 'That was not how you began. Light itself was your first love: you loved paint only as a means of telling about light.'


What a poignant reminder that the beauty we see around us is just a fragment of what there really is... and that it is merely a reflection of a greater beauty. Now I love photography and I see beautiful things all around me (and rarely capture a portion of that in my photos) ... so I can relate to, and understand this passage so well!

DIY Photography

Here's a link all us 'thrifty' photographers can appreciate:

http://www.diyphotography.net/