March 2007 Archives

It happened again.

Except this time, the guy was talking as he came in. And he was talking business, not just a chat with his buddy. And continued to talk as he was urinating. And then, just in case there was any doubt as to whether his conversation partner was aware that he was in the bathroom, the guy actually, boldfaced, all-caps FLUSHED THE TOILET WHILE STILL ON THE PHONE.

I'm kind of glad that I waited to see if he'd flush, because I'm convinced that if I had in fact bellowed "IT'S A SHITTER, NOT A PHONE BOOTH!", this person would probably have thrown me out the window rather than apologize for his fecal indiscretion.

Hi Bean!

Here's our three-month portrait:

Yes, I realize I'm wearing the same sweater as in our two-month portrait. I'll try to remedy that for next month. You, on the other hand, are going through clothes like there's no tomorrow. And I don't just mean in terms of laundry (though lately it seems like we're constantly drowning beneath piles and piles of it, which doesn't seem possible because your clothes are so small!). I mean that you're growing like a weed! When we took you in for your two-month checkup, you were at the 88th percentile for height. So even though stuff looks baggy on you width-wise (you're at 60% weight-wise), your feet started sticking all the way into the feet of your newborn-size sleepy suits. It's sad to think that we're not going to be able to dress you up in the tiniest of tiny clothes anymore...but we're glad to see that you're growing!

As you can tell from the picture above, we have no qualms about dressing you in just about any color we want. Of course, the day we took that picture, we took you out to the local Trader Joe's (Mommy needed a refill of brownie bites, and Daddy needed some of his habanero lime chili salsa) and someone asked us "How old is he?" She was so nice to us that we didn't disabuse her of the notion, but we (and auntie Elaine, especially) hope to teach you that being a girl isn't all pink and frilly and dainty. Then again, dainty kinda goes out the window once you get your poop face on, but I digress.

Of course, pink, frilly and dainty do have their place. We had a little Oscar party that everyone had to dress up for, and you were no exception. Your friend Steph was nice enough to bring this beautiful little silk number all the way from Singapore, and the occasion just called for it. And your new Robeez matched perfectly. It's not exactly the best outfit for going out in late February, but in the cozy confines of our apartment, it's perfectly acceptable to be that daring.

Your thumb is your latest discovery. At the beginning of the month, you had a bit of trouble getting it into your mouth, and you'd rake your face up pretty well trying to find it. Scratches all over your cheeks, the likes of which we hadn't seen since the week we brought you home. Then once you get the thumb in your mouth, you suck on it so forcefully that it rams your fist into your nose and forces you to open your hand up so you can get as much of your little thumb in as possible. Eventually you'll have the manual dexterity to work around such obstacles, but for now, we'll have to deal with the bowling-ball grip - thumb in the mouth, fingers in the eye sockets. Just stop scratching yourself, ok? You gave us a scare at Gram's (mumble)th birthday party when we looked down to see blood on your face, and then reopened the cut a few days later. We had to use your little mitten for a few days on that hand, and worse, we couldn't bring ourselves to take pictures, lest we document what horrible parents we are. That's why February pictures are a bit sparse. Well, that and we forgot our camera on the trip to Maine AND the birthday party. Bad Mommy and Daddy!

But good, GOOD Carly. In fact, you're so good that we think you might be convincing other people that maybe they want to have babies too. This month you've really started socializing - you're small (and immobile) enough that you're easy to take places, and sleep a lot of the time without fussing much, but you're becoming very social and responding to people. Big gummy smiles, lengthy cooing/gurgling sessions with people (even on the phone!) and long periods of attentiveness and really studying people's faces. I must admit, you're quite persuasive, and you have yet to even learn to reason or argue. That's probably just as well, because even we, as your parents, are pretty much powerless to stop you, especially when you look as cute as this.

This is you all dressed up for your first day of school! That's what we're calling day care so that you don't freak out about the word "school" when it's really time to start. We wish we could keep you around during the day but Mommy's job kinda pays for the roof over our heads, so that's not an option. You officially started on the 5th but they said we could come by for some transition time the week before. And boy, did you take to it right away. Of course, you're asleep for five out of the eight hours you're there, but everybody at school tells us what a great baby you are. Very relaxed, very attentive, not demanding at all. One big power nap, either first thing in the morning or in the early afternoon, and otherwise, you're just content to watch the world happen around you. And they tell us that when you make noise, they know it's because you really need something, not just because you're looking for attention. I like to think that's something you picked up from us but maybe we just got lucky. Well, check that, we definitely did get lucky.

One last proud papa portrait from Oscar night, because that dress definitely deserves some more air time:

And one last bit of fame - you're on the front-page rotation of your favorite band's web site!

Looking forward to your first concert in May - maybe you'll even be awake for part of it! You'll soon learn that music is a big part of Mommy & Daddy's life - it's how we met, how we entertain ourselves on those long road trips, and kinda the purpose of a lot of those road trips to begin with. We can't wait to start sharing it with you.

Love,
Daddy

It is the end of an era.

In 2001, shortly after leaving my 45-mile commute behind, Mrs. Dave and I decided to become a one-car family. We sold the Celica that had driven us (and two other people!) from Maine to Pompano Beach and back, and bought ourselves a brand-new shiny Saturn VUE. Gleaming, black-silver roomy goodness on wheels. The years went by and we took it everywhere - upstate Vermont, western New York, multiple trips to New Jersey and Maine...every road trip we took that didn't involve flying. Over 70,000 miles worth at last count.

The one-car family thing worked okay for a few years but the mileage was mounting on the VUE and my office moved from a half-mile away to four miles away; a little less convenient when you need to swap cars to get stuff done. I'd always secretly coveted the new-body VW Passats, and we had some money saved up, so when I found one in the local want ads for a reasonable price (and, as it turns out, a very fastidious owner), we jumped on it. And then the coveting really started.

Mrs. Dave, being the island girl that she is, tends to get cold more easily than the average human being, and when she found out about the sliced-bread goodness that is the "winter package" - heated mirrors, heated windshield spray nozzles, and best of all, heated seats - well, that spelled the beginning of the end for dear old Soonie (so named because one of the VUE's first road trips was through a monsoon). And when we found out the Green Bean was on her way, that sealed the deal. We found a great deal from a local family who was expanding beyond what their Passat wagon could hold, signed ourselves up for more debt, and listed Soonie on craigslist (though not free to a good home...couldn't really afford that).

July became October, October became January, and Soonie sat, unclaimed, in her garage. We had a few nibbles from people whose idea of negotiation was to offer 70% of our asking price and then refuse to budge when we said we were willing to bargain a little bit. That's not negotiation people, that's insulting. Don't care how much you got for the insurance settlement for the last car you smashed up - our car is worth more than yours was. We also had the unfortunate spike in gas prices to deal with - not too much market for an SUV regardless of what you say the gas mileage is.

We kept dropping the price, had some repairs done ($900+ for the front struts, which started really creaking during one of the test drives by a potential buyer - d'oh) but month in, month out, a nibble or two, but no bites. Then came the call - from a buyer two states away, who lives in the same town my brother lives in. Small world. They wrote on a Friday, Carfaxed it over the weekend, got back to us on Wednesday, came Thursday, and had the check for us by Saturday. Now it's happily carrying around a house painter and her dogs, and frolicking happily around the streets of Southern Maine.

Soonie 2002-2007