Night Life

Miriam is clinging to her nocturnal habits. Around the Meldau house that's provided her with a good social life.

Here she is during the day:


Here she is around 10-11 pm Saturday. Her aunt and uncle are just getting ready to go out to watch Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.


We almost went too but I wimped out. I think Miri was disappointed but as consolation she got to snuggle with her Grandpa.


And Aunt Amy was kind enough to give her some hair styling before leaving for the show.


Baby Mohawk

Communing

Reuben is a big fan of the creek that runs behind my folks' house. When he woke up I asked him what he wanted to do he responded with " rocks and water" which is his name for the creek. We walked to it and while Reuben waded around I spied this:


A praying mantis eating a damselfly. He made short work of his meal. It was pretty amazing to see. I also caught sight of a school of minnows frantically swimming around our feet. They were being hunted by a larger fish who didn't want to come any closer to us. The little fish were using us as a refuge but when they strayed too far I saw the big fish dart in and gobble them up. Meanwhile the surviving damselflies were swooping around gobbling up gnats and Mosquitos making the stream a pleasant place. I didn't get a single bug bite which is a big contrast from my backyard where the Mosquitos attack us unmolested. I pointed all this activity out to Reuben. It made me appreciate how wonderful a complete ecosystem with predators is! It also made me think about how Darwin described nature as being in a constant state of war. And I was struck that if someone was to truly commune with nature they would probably end up a pretty violent individual.

Mein Bruder

Early today my brother, Oma, and I were talking about the German's propensity for bluntness. Bluntness so blunt it hits you like a baseball bat in the head. Like when Robby went to model UN representing Germany and the actual German kids told him he wasn't doing a good job with their country because he didn't dress well enough.

Fast forward a few hours. I told Robby that Miriam with her cute button nose and large dark eyes reminded me of this cute baby ewok in Return of the Jedi.

Robby: Oh yeah? That's funny because when she makes that one face, that one with her tongue I think she kind of looks like Jabba the hut.

I think that's Robby channeling his German heritage.

Ha Ha History

To me there are very few things funnier than history. So I LOVE the comics Kate Beaton is making about our jerk president Andrew Jackson. Check her work out here!!

Teaching By Example

We've been trying to encourage Miriam to sleep at night. She's a little night owl. She'd prefer to be awake 1-3 am then sleep through the morning. Aaron said he'd help me try to get her schedule switched. This is what I found when I came to bed last night.

If You Give a Sister a Cracker

Reuben seems to have decided that he likes Miriam (or as he says Meow-meow) well enough. He's even started to show her some love. It warmed my heart when he insisted on giving her a cracker. Miriam was not conscious for the event but her grasping reflex cooperated nicely. She held onto her cracker for a good five minutes which pleased Reuben.

The next day he found her several scabby, dirt encrusted rocks and supervised carefully to be sure I helped her grasp each one. That's some serious twenty month old love - or some seriously stealthy biological warfare.

And this is rather random but did you know microwave popcorn is really just popcorn in a bag? You can make your own by putting popcorn in a brown paper bag and folding it up. Check it out.

Elephant Carrying

You know that story about the little boy who has a pet elephant? When the elephant is born he is so small the boy can carry him without any trouble. The boy continues to carry the elephant each day and consequently grows into a man who can carry a full grown elephant.

Having Miriam has made me realize I've been carrying an elephant around. Reuben is a solid 35 lbs. I haven't thought much of his weight since I've been carrying him since he was a measly six lbs. But now I have little Miriam to compare him to and I've realized the boy is HEAVY. It doesn't mean I get to stop carrying my elephant. From recent events, it looks like I'll now be carrying two elephants around.

When I'm done with this my arms are going to be awesome. Or so bizarrely muscled I can join the circus.