Dad (Brett)
All around
rockstar geek. Brett enjoys his job as a Clinical Data Manager (helping research medical breakthroughs at Celgene); in his time off he enjoys reading books, watching movies, and learning new tricks on his camera and in Photoshop. He absolutely adores his wife and 2 daughters.
Mom (Erin)
Complete supermom. Erin loves her job as a Youth Field Researcher (aka 'mother'); in her plentiful spare time (ha!) she enjoys sleeping, re-reading Twilight or Harry Potter, and cuddling with Brett.
Aeriana ('Wacko', 'Princess')
Hybrid Angel/Devil. Aeriana loves her mommy and daddy, each of whom she loves to test at times and pretend innocence at others. A veritable sponge, Aeriana wants to do anything she sees an adult doing; she loves babies and especially adores her little sister, taking great care of her every need.
Zoe Jean ('Stinker', 'Cutie')
Growing fast, Zoe wants to be just like her big sister. Very goal oriented, she'll find a way to get that toy she's been looking at. She loves her pacifier and can't help but snuggle up to her blanket. Zoe is as relaxed as they come, she just loves chillin' out and watching TV.
Aeriana is a big girl!
Well Aeriana had her first play date last week with her friend Raquel. They had lots of fun playing together.
She might not be able to roll over yet, and certainly can't pull herself up, but if we stand her up and let her hold on to something she can stay up all by herself for quite a while. We sure do have one strong baby!
Labels: Aeriana, pictures
Prodiginestitatiolosity
Jay Greenberg is a 15 year old kid, but don't call him a normal teenager. Jay is a musical child prodigy. Currently studying at Juilliard, Jay started playing the oboe at age two, has now composed over 100 works, and had written five symphonies by the age of twelve. When talking about music, Jay says that he constantly hears music in his head and it's all he can do to get it written out fast enough, his gift is truly inspirational.
I can relate, though from a slightly different perspective. That's right, I'm a mathematical genius. True there are a few differences between my and Jay's prodiginosity (technically the term is "prodigiousness", but one of my other talents is making up words that sound like they could be real); his gift is artistic while mine is scientific, his gift is practically constant while mine is relatively fleeting, and his gift is extremely impressive while mine is... well, completely fabricated. But all differences aside, I think Jay and I are kindred spirits.
I came to this realization yesterday while Erin and I were driving to church. Aeriana is not a big fan of car rides and will stop crying only under the perfect circumstances. If we're driving at a decent speed, if there are sufficient bumps in the road to give her a soothing massage, and if we are listening to piano music (especially Jon Schmidt) then she's happy. But if the music stops, if we listen to something besides piano music, or if the car slows down she will let us know in varying degrees how unhappy she is at the change. Erin and I were laughing pretty hard yesterday because she'd be quiet and happy until we hit a red light, then the wailing began; as soon as we started driving again she'd calm right down; it was like there was a switch turning her cries on and off.
My prodigious mathematical inspiration struck me at one particular point in the drive, Aeriana had been up and down in her mood but right then we came to a red light at the exact same time a song on the CD was ending, so the car was stationary and completely silent. But not for long. Aeriana's wails almost instantly became louder than they'd been at any time during the rest of the car ride. I realized that there must be a mathematical equation that could explain the volume of her cries based on the environmental variabilities. And so I present to you the fruits of my utter genius.
The Deaf Man's Theorum
(V * 10 – (B * 2) + M) = dBWhere V relates to the velocity of the car:
- If velocity is 0-10 mph then V = 2
- If velocity is 10-50 mph then V = 1
- If velocity is > 50 mph then V = 0
Where B is the number of discernible bumps in the road per quarter-minute ranging from 0-15; bumps per period shown as "bpp"
Where M relates to the type of music playing:
- If music is off then M = 110
- If music is rock/pop then M = 70
- If music is instrumental/classical then M = 50
- If music is piano solo then M = 35
Where dB is the decibel level of Aeriana’s cries on the way to church
Decibel Level Reference:
0 dB = a mosquito ten feet away
5 dB = Aeriana at 60 mph, 15 bpp, listening to piano music
13 dB = the hum of a light bulb
40 dB = whispering
60 dB = normal conversation
72 dB = Aeriana at 30 mph, 4 bpp, listening to rock music
85 dB = beginning of hearing damage
128 dB = human head hair can begin feeling sound vibrations
130 dB = Aeriana at 0 mph, 0 bpp, with music off
133 dB = gunshot at ear level
149 dB = human lungs and breathing begin vibrating with the sound
165 dB = jet airplane
190 dB = human ear drum ruptures
202 dB = human death
Labels: Aeriana, Erin, family, music
Moments Uncaptured
Ever since Aeriana got sick she's had more trouble sleeping through the night. Prior to that she'd go down around 10:00, wake up around 4:30-5:30 to eat and then go back to sleep for a few more hours always doing just fine in her crib; but for the past couple of weeks she's been up three to four times a night, sometimes because she's hungry, other times just because and sometimes she won't go back to sleep unless she's in our bed.
Anyway, Aeriana woke up early this morning for some unknown reason and was proving a bit stubborn so I took her to Erin in our bed while I got ready for work. When I came in to say goodbye both of them had passed out in exactly the same position. They were both about three-quarters covered by the bedspread, they were both lying on their stomachs, they both had their head cocked to the left, right arms down to the side, left arm up making a right angle.
I didn't take a picture right then because the flash would have woken them both up, but I'm thinking back now and wondering if it just may have been worth not letting that image go uncaptured. Oh well, maybe next time.
Labels: Aeriana, Erin, family
I Love Books
The fact that I'm a book nut is probably not news for any of you; but just in case you didn't know, I LOVE books. I've looked back over my previous posts and surprisingly don't think I've ever blogged about a website I use to keep track of all of my books. It's called LibraryThing.com and it's very cool. For the first couple hundred books it's free, for more than that it's $25 for a lifetime subscription. The site catalogs all the books you own, allows you to tag them, provides recommendations, etc. (there is a certain amount of effort involved, but generally it will add your books based on the ISBN). I also use a "Wishlist" tag to identify books that I want to keep an eye out for. Overall a very cool, very user-friendly site.
My apologies if I'm repeating something I've already told you, but I just found a really cool new feature today and had to share. The site has a program called "Early Reviewers", all you have to do is be a LibraryThing member (free or paid) and you can sign up to receive free books from publishers in the hope that you'll provide a review for them. There are more details of course, but no hidden catches; the site posts a list of books at the first of each month and you have about a week to flag the ones you'd be interested in receiving. They then randomly pick from the interested people and send them free books. The likelihood of being chosen ranges, some prior books had 15 copies and 300+ requests, other books had up to 100 copies available. Either way, it's a free book!!!
If you're a book nut like me, I highly recommend checking out
LibraryThing.com as well as their
Early Reviewer page.
By the way, if you sign up to LibraryThing let me know and I'll add you to my contacts list.
Labels: books
Toys
Erin and I been having some fun with new toys lately; we both picked up some new digital cameras last week. Erin got this really tiny Canon Elph that takes great shots and she's able to just slide into the diaper bag; I'd probably lose or break the thing it's so small and thin, but Erin loves it.
My camera is on the opposite end of the size spectrum... it's a Sony Alpha 100 digital SLR. I've been wanting to get a dSLR to be able to have more control and finally took the plunge. I'm really loving it, it's great to be able to snap pictures of Aeriana swinging without it being blurred. I also really love the rapid fire mode which lets me take a bunch of pictures in succession to capture that perfect moment of her smile.
The camera is just in time too... Aeriana has just started realizing the amazing capabilities of her hands. She reaching for things and deliberately grabbing/moving her toys. It's been so much fun watching her play because she's just fascinated by the new self-relience in the entertainment department.
I obviously have a long way to go before I'm a decent "photographer", but having the equipment to learn on is step one I guess.
That brings us to our latest "toy". We had our friends Matt and Renee down for the weekend for conference (which was amazing) and we rented a few games for the Wii while they were here. Erin and I got hooked on the new Zelda game, the controls are fantastic and just seem to flow, not to mention the gameplay being just right; so we went out and bought the game. If you don't hear from us in the next several weeks, we might need an Intervention arranged for us. Despite being so young, Aeriana is not immune either, she loves watching the action on the TV with all the colors and movement.
Labels: Aeriana, Erin, family, pictures
The Last Two Weeks
Aeriana was blessed in church a week ago on Easter. We had a great time and had a good number of family members that were able to come. My parents and two brothers, Erin's parents and grandmother, as well as Karlene, Nikki, and Nayana. Matt and Renee also came down. It was a wonderful day and Aeriana looked gorgeous in her dress.
We had woken her up a bit early, got her dressed and fed, had everything worked out so that she was asleep in my arms and we were in our seats before church even started; she looked like a perfect angel. She laid there asleep and quiet through the opening prayer and song and I started thinking we were home free. That lasted until literally the exact moment the Bishop announced it was time for the baby blessing, suddenly the chapel was filled with Aeriana's wails. Luckily she took her pacifier and we were able to get through the blessing just fine.
After church we all got together at Karlene's house for Easter dinner (we also had dinner there the night before, thanks a million to Karlene for hosting all of our guests so generously). We had a great time and Aeriana loved the attention, there were constantly new people wanting to hold her and talk to her.
By Sunday night the family was all headed home and we were left to enjoy a few more days with Matt and Renee... I took a couple days off of work and we just hung out playing games and passing the baby around. One of the greatest accomplishments of the weekend was getting Erin and Renee to play Risk. Granted I got ganged up on and was out of the game quite early, but I think the girls had fun which may open the door to more matches in the future where I will prove more resilient.
That brings us to the last couple of days... Aeriana came to church with us again on Sunday and was wonderful. Then yesterday she started not feeling well, really really not feeling well. She's been much more quiet, not quite as talkative as usual, but she's definitely still happy and smiling... at least when she's not throwing up all over the place. It's been fun. Erin took her in to see the doctor today and it looks like a stomach virus for which pedialyte and time will be the cure. She hasn't been able to keep any formula down, but she seems to do okay with the pedialyte and doesn't seem like she's getting too dehydrated so I'm sure she'll be fine in no time. We'll definitely keep you posted if anything interesting happens though.
--Check out Flickr for more pictures from that weekend, we can't post them all here.
Labels: Aeriana, family, pictures, religion
