Category: Uncategorized (Page 35 of 40)

Dash has been feeding himself with a spoon for a few weeks now, but with easy to scoop things, like applesauce. Here is his first bowl of cereal with (mama’s) milk! The tune is Vince Guaraldi’s Thanksgiving Theme.

Dashiell has adjusted to school pretty well. He loves the social aspect and it seems like he comes home with a new skill every day. The latest is him trying to describe how his teeth feel; he hits himself in the head and says: “owwwwww.” He definitely did not learn that at home!

4 upper teeth are cutting now–the two incisors and the 2 first molars. We expected just the first molars at this time (14 months old) as seen on this chart, but we seem to have skipped to the “16-23 months” section (but only for the top). This has been in the making for months–with lots of false starts. But now they’ve all broken through, and we’re again amazed that he is experiencing every single possible teething symptom: face rash (just cleared up), lots of extra pooping, waking up in the night, wants to nurse more (or not nurse at all), drooling…poor little guy can’t help but be a little crabby. Still, he puts on a happy face. The teachers at school have all remarked on how happy he is. I think he is the “ring leader” in his class–his height is probably a factor there. He’s now 33″ tall (!) and easily towers over all the other kids in the class.

But again we struggle with sleep in school. Never having been one to sleep easily, all the stimuli of “school” doesn’t help our cause. Today we had a breakthrough and he got 2 naps at school. Although I ask his teachers to try to nap him twice every day, this is only the second time is has actually happened (the classroom policy only supports 1 official lights-out-and-everybody-nap time, argh). The school is trying to be supportive (I took a sick day last week just to get him caught up on his sleep–and me on mine, since we’d been up so much in the night!)–to drive the message home, they took this snap of him today.

And here are some masterpieces done at school:

While I was away working a couple weeks ago, Jeff and Lisa got busy practicing their low-budget film school techniques! We call this one “Shopping Cart Cam.”

So for years now I’ve been hanging on to a bunch of Edwards (my Mom’s side of the family) artifacts. Prints, newspaper clippings, negatives, positives, even some plates from a yet-to-be-determined era. I’ve got them all organized…in a box…in the basement. They move from basement to basement, and get stuck on a shelf, next to all that 16mm motion picture negative (sigh).

But now that we have a working scanner again, I am determined to at least make mediocre archives of these things. And I’ll be taking old things out of frames and digitizing them. I have very little wall space, and, besides, more people can see them once they’re on this blog.

I’ll start by showing you how much Sherry looks like her Dad, Bob Edwards. I had to use this high school portrait of my Mom, since the scanner is nice and warmed up now (and I love this picture of you Mom)!

See the long eyes?

It was my Grandma Lori who first noticed that Dash looked a lot like my Mom, and this was when Dash was really tiny still. I thought then that he looked more like Jeff (who also has long long eyes), and saw that he definitely had my nose (which comes from Winifred Sussman, pictured in my last post), but the older her gets, the more I see the Edwards resemblance.

And here is a shot of Mom as a toddler! Now we see the origin of Dash’s blond ‘fro!

I need to get a good shot of the two of them together and then my hypothesis can be better tested…

Yesterday I met my cousin Abby for the first time! And her brother David happened to be in town, as well. So we soaked up some of the last bits of Portland sunshine, sat outside, and got to know each other. I thought ahead and packed the camera in the diaper bag–even thought to bring a freshly-charged battery–but was so absorbed in the conversations that I completely forgot to take a picture of us. So you’ll just have to imagine us, the lowish sun, the smell of freshly baked bread, the streetcar going by, dogs and lots of happy people. I think I could have blabbed all day; we all have a lot more than a surname in common. The baby had other plans, though, so I’m hoping for a redux–maybe dinner at our house, soon?

The timing of this cousin introduction is interesting; I just shipped off my old Sony PD170 video camera to a friend, who’s headed to Turkey to document the town her grandparents were from. It’s an exciting project and I wish I could beam myself there to give her a hand…

Since I didn’t get a snap of the clan yesterday, here at least are 2 photos of the grandparents that we share. Judging from the text in the frames I have, these are from Sally’s archives, that look like prints made from prints, without a negative (thanks Sally for keeping these things, and keeping them organized):

For our first real bike outing, we headed out to the path by the airport. It was a hazy, warm day, destined to be in the 90s, so we got out there early to beat the heat and the crowds. Since our bike rack only holds 2 bikes, Jeff rode all the way to the path and back–a 30 mile day for him! We did a nice flat 7 mile ride that was a tad too long for Dashiell, but we broke it up by taking a wade in the water.

I was so happy to see Dash’s face light up at the sight of the planes taking off and landing, so close to us. I only realized later that we were under the flight path at pdx on September 11, 2011.

D says: Mom, I’m not too into sitting for very long, that’s why I am looking peeved in this video. But I did really like watching the jumbo jets come and go, and seeing the sailboats on the Columbia River. Next time, let’s take a shorter ride! And please bring more things to chew on.

Click here to view the video if you cannot see it below.

Portland is known for a few things: beer (the most breweries in the world), coffee, and of course, bicycling (“radfahren” for those of you following our German lessons).

Here is Dash getting into the swing of things on his first two-wheeled adventure. Click here if your browser does not support HTML 5.

Now that Dashiell is 1, I have been reflecting on how lucky I was to have such an excellent birth experience. I’m so grateful to everyone who helped me make August 5, 2010 the most memorable day of my life.

Thank you to Jeff for being the most sensitive and thoughtful co-birther imaginable. Thank you to all the gals in my birthing class, taught by Catherine Shaefer and held at the relaxing Zenana Spa. You were all “with” me on the big day and your collective strength helped me though the challenging hours when D was still posterior.

Thank you to Janelle Niemann Ross, a highly experienced, gentle woman whose demeanor and patience made all the difference. Her colleague Patty Karchner also lent a hand–thank you for being there Patty! The hospital was a pleasant surprise–everyone respected our birth plan (as little intervention as possible) and I welcomed the big picture window that let in jubilant sunshine as we labored and sat in the pool. Nurse Alicia coached me at the end with great sprit, and wonderful Mr. Marmion helped the day have a happy ending. Thank you!

An extra special thank you goes out to Gracie Koester, my exceptional doula. Gracie, you will always be so special to us. I was so glad to have you in my corner. You kept my eye on the prize and always had my best interests at hand, even in hour 23. Thank you. I love you!

Dashiell has mastered the sign for “thank you,” which is done by gesturing as if you were blowing a kiss to someone. At first he did the sign as you would expect, to indicate “thank you,” but now he’s doing it when other people say “thank-you,” or when he wants to say “you’re welcome,” like when he gives you some of his food, or one of his toys! Click here to see the video in a new window.

Of course, there are lots of reasons. His shy good looks, that impishness, the fantastic curly hair! His wordy wit, his game-playing acumen (do not bother trying to win at Scrabble). He can retain an unnatural amount of information. He can remember almost everything (take note! he has forgotten things lately!).

But the quality of Jeff’s that I admire the most is his love for learning. He has an intellectual curiosity that is a perfect companion to my interest in what seems like any subject under the sun. However, unlike me, Jeff can sit down and learn a new programming language from a book and have it mastered in a couple weeks.

And he enjoys nothing more than sharing his knowledge with others.

The other night, a friend’s daughter needed help with her pre-Calculus homework. She called around 8:00pm and the homework was due the next day (!). So after all the dishes were done, the trash had been taken out, Dashiell’s lunch had been packed, and everyone else went to bed, Jeff reviewed her class notes and her assignment, and wrote her this email.

Let’s start with domain and range. These are just fancy words for what you put in and what you get out.

Think of it like this: If you have a job that pays $10/hr and you put in 8 hours, you get out $80. In function notation, this would be represented like f(x) = $10 * x, where f(x) is the fancy name for how much you get paid. So in this case, the “domain” [what you put in] is how many hours you work and the “range” [what you get out] is how much you get paid.

Now, mathematically, the “domain” of is function is all real numbers; however, for this example [maybe it’s not a good one for this reason] you could argue that the domain is really only x >= 0 because you can’t work negative hours.

Now, with the restrictions, they build on this concept and say, “okay, technically, what we’re representing in an f(x) notation is not a ‘true’ function, but it’s way easier to just write it this way.” When they ask “which values of x are not in the domain of the function,”what they mean is “so, okay, our formula metaphor is not perfect, where does it fall apart?” The restrictions are some “hints” of where formulas fall apart: 1) if you try to divide by 0 and 2) if you try to take the square root of a negative number.

So let’s take a look a real-world example: the strength of an electromagnetic field is roughly f(x) = k / (x^2), where k is something that doesn’t matter. If this is troublesome, just think of it as 5, f(x) = 5 / (x^2). So I know what you’re thinking, electromagnetic field strength? real-world example? Huh? Here’s where it gets real: Your cell phone emits electromagnetic radiation [range, or what you get out]. How much your brain gets depends on how far away it is [domain, or what you put in]. So how much radiation your brain gets “is a function of ” [a.k.a depends on] how far away from your head the phone is. Great, so we have a formula, and we kinda understand how it relates to real life, but how do I figure out what the domain is? This is where the restriction “hints” come into play.

So let’s start with the 2nd one: are we taking the square root of anything? 5 / (x^2) Nope, okay, so that hint didn’t help us. What about trying to divide by 0? Are by doing division? Yep. 5 / (x^2). Okay, so when would the bottom part be 0? x^2 = 0. We’ll that’s pretty obvious, when x = 0. So, the only value where our formula breaks down [a.k.a. not in the domain] is when x = 0. If we think about the cell phone-brain example, does this make sense? Sure, the cell phone can’t be a distance of 0 from our brain because at a distance of 0, the cell phone and our brain would be in the exact same place [ok, so sometimes, I think my brain is *in* my cell phone because of mobile google and wikipedia, but that’s completely different].

Ok, so let’s take a another example: maybe you’ve had a class where a teacher graded “on the curve,” meaning that they adjust everyone’s grades based on how some or all of the students did. The idea is that they use a “bell curve” to determine what an A is, what a B is, what a C is, etc. One of the things that they use to determine the width between the lowest A and the lowest B or the lowest B and the lowest C is called “standard deviation,” [again, a fancy term for width; those math people love their fancy words]. So the formula for width is based on based on the square root of a whole bunch of stuff like what all the individual scores were, what the average is, etc. We’re just going to call that whole ball of wax, x. That’s what we put into the function and what we get out is how much space is between an A and a B. In math notation, this would be f(x) = sqrt(x). So for grading on a curve, the range, or what’s an A, what’s a B, what’s a C, is a function of the domain, or how everyone scored. Ok, great, so what’s in the domain and what’s not? Well, let’s look at our hints: Are we dividing by anything? Nope, that hint isn’t going to help us. Ok, are we taking the square root of anything? Yes! Great, so when does our formula metaphor break down? Square roots of negative numbers. Ok, so x < 0 makes us take a square root of a negative number. Let's check this against the real-world example: So if 0 people take a test, the distance between an A and a B is 0. That's a little silly, but technically true, so that's ok. So what about x < 0? Well, can we have negative people take a test? Negative attitude doesn't count, so no, having -3 people take a history test doesn't make any sense. So we say that x < 0 is not in the domain because that makes our formula say ridiculous things. Make sense? Does this help? Let's work through the homework problems, 48, 49, and 50: 48. Which values of x are not in domain of f(x) = 3 / (x - 1)? Hint 1: Are we dividing by something? Yes! When does that thing equal 0? x - 1 = 0, so when x = 1, we are dividing by 0. 1 is not in the domain. Hint 2: Are we taking the square root of something? No! We're done. 1 is the only thing not in the domain. 49. Which values of x are not in the domain of f(x) = (3 - x) / (x + 5)? Hint 1: Are we dividing by something? Yes! When does that thing equal 0? x + 5 = 0, so when x = -5, we are dividing by 0. -5 is not in the domain. Hint 2: Are we taking the square root of something? No! We're done. -5 is the only thing not in the domain. 50. Which values of x are not in the domain of f(x) = (x^2 - 18) / (32 - x^2)? Hint 1: Are we dividing by something? Yes! When does that thing equal 0? 32 - x^2 = 0, so when x = +- sqrt(32) a.k.a +- 4 * sqrt(2) a.k.a. +- 5.6568... . +- 4 * sqrt(2) is not in the domain. Hint 2: Are we taking the square root of something? No! [So, yes, we're taking the sqrt of something to find the answer to hint 1, but we're not taking the sqrt of something in the function itself]. We're done. +- 4 * sqrt(2) are the only things not in the domain. By the way, you have an error on 41. f(-4) for x^2 - 13 should be (-4)^2 - 13, not - (4^2) - 13. So, (-4)^2 is 16. 16 - 13 = 3.

We showed Lisa Portland this weekend, in both of its forms: urban and wild. We had picture postcard weather to accompany us, and Dashiell came along for all the fun with a smile on his face.

The weekend kicked off with the season opening Camas High School football game. It was quite a spectacle; they take their ball seriously here. Last year the opening game was played against their rivals in Seattle in the Seahawks (NFL) stadium, if you can imagine. The senior class last year had the best season on record, so the then-juniors now have their work cut out for them (or so I’m told. For those of you who know me well, you know I don’t know the difference between a down and a…whatever).

Lisa didn’t seem too into American football, so they next day we trekked into town where she and I could speak the universal language of shopping.

We checked out Nordstrom’s, where we also had an excellent lunch (I love their desserts and they make a great iced tea). We also hit up the new Portland H & M store, which Lisa confirmed carried the same merchandise as the store back home.

The next day we hit the road and headed east for a day in the Columbia Gorge. First stop was Vista House, where surprisingly we’d never been. It’s a reception house, kind of like a beacon or lighthouse even, situated on 1 gorgeous lookout with sweeping views into the gorge.

It is obligatory for every tourist to visit the stunning Multnomah Falls. Although it is heavily trafficked and I have been there several times myself, I never get tired of the sight. We had so much rain this year that the falls seemed extra spectacular.

We were dressed for the 90-degree weather that was supposedly on its way, but I (stupidly) forgot about the wind in the Gorge, for which it is famous (seeing as it’s the birthplace of windsurfing). So we froze. We took shelter in the Multnomah Lodge, where we snuggled next to the fire and took a break.

After warm drinks, we headed further east and hiked around other waterfalls-Horsetail and Ponytail Falls, with a crossing over the Onenata Gorge. Here are the highlights.

It was definitely time for lunch after the nice 2.7 mile loop, so we headed back into Washington via the Bridge of the Gods and took refuge at the Skamania Lodge, a place that we brought Don and Lori to on their past visit. After this visit I vow to go back sometime and stay for a weekend. The views are outstanding, the setting is pristine, and it definitely is the perfect place to unwind after a day of kayaking or “wandern” (German for “hiking”). This shot captures the scene well.

There were also 2 weddings going on there, which added to the festive mood. It seems like a popular wedding spot. We peeked into two reception rooms that were being prepped and were amazed by the design: one room was being transformed into a Fall-colored forest, with real trees and several outstanding touches, like tree-branch seating card holders and moss-covered table settings.

It was a weekend to remember.

And since the strangely-high temps are set to continue all week, it seems like summer is just getting started in earnest here…we’ll take it while we can get it! It was 94 today; our tomatoes sure are happy…