Fun!

GeekDad makes a boat

Other people race similar boats

Cat: away. Mouse: asleep.

From Otis Malcolm Chilton....the 2nd year!

Kate is at the Northwest Regatta in Vancouver, WA this weekend and so Otis, Ronald and I have the run of things. If this is anything like last time it'll be Lord of the Flies by Saturday afternoon and I'm the only one who wears glasses around here. (Get the Cliff notes, skim, come back when you get it.)

We had plans for Sunday afternoon to see Les Nubians at Stern Grove with pals, but we soon realized that it's Pride09 weekend and I don't want to spend the weekend in the car parked on the freeway, then parked on the surface roads, then circling for parking, then SKIP > REVERSE parked on the surface roads, then parked on the freeway, then parked on the bridge.

The alternative is to ride the rails with the masses. On a normal day this would be my preferred method of transport, but there is going to be a metric ton of sequins spilled on those trains this weekend and I'd rather just go to Cesar Chavez park with the rainbow kite (perfect, right?) and try to keep Ronald from getting eaten by Gopher snakes.

Otis tends to sleep pretty well in the Chariot trailer, so if we play and so forth in the morning and then load up maybe I could do a little hill climb workout with him in there. Does anyone else have and use a trailer on a regular basis? What do you keep in there to keep the child occupied? I've got Goodnight Moon, a plush dragonfly, two or three animal flashcards, a picture of his Mommy, a matchbox car, and a nearly empty water bottle so he doesn't do too much soaking back there. I find that when he's not sleeping he's just sort of staring out the side window. Maybe that's a good thing. I hope I won't need to install a DVD player back there.

Current NerdDad to-do list: (not GeekDad. It's different.)

1. Finish thesis and therefore graduate school [at least it's on the list, right Dad?]


2. Make a storage rack/bag/pouch/sling/tube/quiver/something to carry more cargo on the Chariot [actual need]


3. Design and construct small ratcheted Gaussian generator to create strobing red light for kite [fun for LollaPeaylooza]


4. Combine computer and table in a computertable chimera that provides the benefits of a table without the appearance of a computer [theoretical project]


5. Unpack the remaining photos, stationary, etc and find a place to store it


6. Repack the closet to prepare for LollaPeaylooza and move some hard goods out to storage space

A charmer in both words and deeds

So Otis is really getting the hang of the social aspects of life. Watch this video where he acts coy about his new green boots. [Thanks Grandma for the boots!]



After that here are a few 'director's cuts' of Otis playing at home. 'Director's cuts' means they are long and should have been edited.





Otis is saying more words, including 'po-paw' = 'purple', 'cawh' = 'car', 'cawh-cawh' = 'Auntie Carla from Massachusetts', 'bike-o' = 'bicycle or tricycle', 'Robbie' = 'Ronald', 'doggie' = 'dog', 'doggie' = 'squirrel', 'doggie' = 'horse', 'doggie' = 'any animal', 'more' = 'more'. He also says 'wheee!' when he does something fun like swing on a swing, fly a kite at the park or ride his bike-o. Yesterday he sat on the bike-o, gave a good scoot, coasted with his feet up until he stopped rolling, then used his thumb to 'ding' the bell and exclaimed 'BIKE-O!' with a huge grin on his face. It was like an advertisement for bike-o.

More pictures on the Picasa site. Enjoy!

Otis loves his tunnels

From Otis Malcolm Chilton....the 2nd year!

Toddler!

It happened. Overnight, it seems, Otis became a toddler! He is one busy little dude. Has tons of words, loves to run, figure things out, laugh, "read", push his bike and more! Here are a coupla videos. Also, new pictures on the picasa site. Enjoy!


New pushbike with a fun bell. Ding!


Dancin' in the greenhouse.


Loves telecommunications.

Greenhouse!

We moved on May 1st to a new place across town... one with a backyard and a greenhouse. So far we're really enjoying our new space, letting Otis and Ronald romp in the yard with the neighbor's Chihuahua-Terrier mix and slowly unpacking boxes. The aunties came out to visit in late April and we all had an excellent visit. Now that we have an internet connection again we may be able o get more photos and videos up to the websites. We'll try!



and also this is unrelated, but awesome

New Skill Summary

Otis can now play horsie on the couch cushions, often while holding a tamborine and saying 'AAHHH-AH-AH-AHHH-AH-AAHH-AH-AH-AH-AHHH-AH-AAAHHAHA-HAAHA!"



and locate and peep through knot holes in fences and then get a little scared when a police Harley-Davidson starts it loudly roaring engine at the end of the block! Ages and stages, ages and stages...

Video Blitz!

This is Otis at a playground in Lake Tahoe. He's swinging himself!



In the same spirit of doing things for himself...he was helping with the mopping in the kitchen. Not exactly full contact with the floor...but a good start.



And... Otis and James at daycare with their buddies. They like to bounce on the bed!



Otis figured out how to play the kazoo!

Dearest Blog Readers,

Whatchu lookin' at?

Ciao, 

Otis

*photo by ELC

New Videos!

Otis and I (Kate) took an impromptu trip back to Massachusetts last week...to visit our dear fam and friends!  We stayed in Somerville with Beth (hidden under the pot) and Amy. 

Otis played lots of pan drums!

And got scared by their Roomba. :(

Then we went to the playground with 2 of the biggest kids we know: Beth and Jen!

Thankfully Auntie Amy Chil has a much better video camera than we do.  Check some of HER VIDEOS of our trip too!

Puddles!

Where does he get this love of splashing around in the rain from? Geez.

Healing up.

At 'The Sausage Factory' in the Castro after a screening of 'Milk'.

Otis came down with Conjunctivitis ("Pinkeye") after his rained-out birthday romp at our apartment last Sunday. He didn't look great on Tuesday, but after consulting with the day care providers we decided to give it a go. At this point we didn't know what was wrong, just that he looked uncomfortable. He woke up after his first nap at day care with angry red eyes and green goop in the corners and they called me at work: 'Can you please come pick him up? It's so contagious. We can't keep him.' So I bombed out of work at 1pm on Tuesday for the rest of the day and then Kate took essentially all of Wednesday and Thursday off to care for him because he couldn't go back until he was essentially symptom-free. So long, vacation time!

He was very uncomfortable during this time and actually didn't really sleep at all on Thursday night. Kate took him to the doctor on Friday afternoon and they confirmed a double ear infection to close out the conjunctivitis. So from anti-bacterial eye drops he went to anti-bacterial amoxicillin that often makes him sick (based upon his first ear infection). He soldiered on through the weekend and he seems to be looking pretty good now. Only occasional ear-tugging and very little runny nose... both improvements.

Bad news is Dad came down with a cold on Monday and stayed home from work on Tuesday. It's looking like there will be very little vacation time with which to travel back East, at least for Dad. I will try to post more pictures and videos. We've taken to using our phones to take pictures, which reduces the quality but may increase the quantity of pictures taken because we always have them with us. If you see a crazy post with yellow 'SprintPCS' banners and a bunch of links and so forth, just have patience and I'll fix it later... that's the best I can do at posting pictures from my phone without access to a computer. Enjoy the pictures and have a rainy March! (I hope.)

1 yr stats

Weight: 21 lbs (<25%)
Height: 32 in (>95%)
Head circumference: 49 cm (from 38cm at birth!)

He's getting tall and skinny!

So happy on a bike

Otis borrowed a friend's trike on saturday and had a grand time.