Haunted house - Camac and Pine Streets

This is one of my favorite doors in the city. Look at the years of wear, and decay. Look at the beautiful arch of the brick over what was once a well kept entrance. The door looks a lot like what you might see in some tenement in Eastern Europe... But lucky for me it's right here in Center City. Days like today with perfect light don't come along often and here you have the light high over head casting a perfect relief against the chipped paint.

This haunted house also features two bay windows. This one faces Camac and has an odd diarama of sort. I can't explain the point of it, but it does change from time to time.

This is the Pine Street facing windows. Again, an odd composition but photogenic nonetheless.

Finally...... THE EASTER POST

What is Easter without ham? What is a blog post about Easter without a photo of... ham?

Ham

Corn

Family

This defies most labels, but let's just go with "Pilates while nursing" - which basically means Baby is using mommy's shoulder to pratice resistance excercises. That little one is always thinking about progress, unwilling to waste even 5-10 minutes. I'm impressed.

Full gallery below:

Baby, Samba, and this so called "Other Baby"

"Yesssss! My favorite pet!"

"This is my best indie rock pose. If I ever make an album, I'm all set!"

"Yes?"

"Oh, it's the other baby..."

There are a few more photos which you might want to check out. The last frame is what we call "Foggy Style" and harkens back to Willa's sling wearing days. She's just about ready to actually put knees forward and crawl. Maybe one more week!

Lukas in the city

Lukas sits with lunch with his prized Mac in the background

His 1st floor apartment has nice views of surrounding buildings and with southern exposure he has sunlight well into the evening. It's a light, airy space.

Mommy and Baby enjoyed our lunch (Baby not so much due to teething)

And this is the view from his closet. The bedroom measures about 10x12 feet. In addition to the 2nd bedroom (currently occupied by a roommate) he also has a kitchen area and bathroom. Not bad for a "first apartment" !!

Spring is here... almost

Nature loves to tease us - doesn't she! Today - a beautiful day in the midst of some pretty dreary ones - was the first day which provided a blue sky as a backdrop to our newly budding Magnolia blossoms. But the sunshine and clear sky decieved us into thinking it was WARM. Not so! The high was somewhere around 45F I think.

Anyway, as you can see, we still have a LOT of buds so the next few weeks are going to be spectacular.

Pain and suffering - Teething

Yes, Baby is about to cry. It's teething time again.

So, the bad week - which started with the family all falling ill to a stomach bug - just got worse in the last few days. She goes in and out of being inconsolable. Sometimes she screams. Sometimes she just cries and wimpers. Overall, it's not her usual temperment! Don't worry, mommy rushed over to pick her up after the last frame.

We often photograph babies at their happiest moments but crying is also an important part of development, life, and sometimes the pursuit of happiness. Here you see a beautiful baby even in a time of distress. It's hard not to be a happy parent even when your baby cries. It's all part of the program we signed up for.

And yes, she is looking up at mommy. I'm not some heartless baby photographer! Sheesh...

Also

Be careful of the Markus imposter known as Christie. She's sneaky - posting under my name and trying to make me look "wordy" and careless with spelling and grammar. If a post does not discuss the metric system or include several videos or photos, it's Christie. If you look up at the clock and realize you've been reading for 25 minutes, it's Christie. If the post uses bullet points or outline format, it's Christie. If it's missing post labels, it's probably Christie!

I will have to provide her blog training so that she posts under her own name or else I might have to change my password(!) at some point.

hehe ;) So, was this Christie posting or Markus???

This week in review

We're all here again. Yes, Christie got home tonight from her regular travels and it's good to have her back. We look forward to seeing everyone over the weekend and I realized I had a few good photos to unload before my big weekend of photography which will probably yield a hundred images and an hour of video.

Also, Willa's sippy cup which Christie bought at Walmart of all places is made in Germany and features graduated markings up to 150ml. Score!!!

OK, so you don't want to talk about liquid in such large numbers? Well check this out: 150 milliliters = 15.0 centiliters = 1.5 deciliters = 0.15 liters. So, if your baby drinks 150 ml (about 5 fl. oz.) you can just say your baby drank "one and a half deciliters" or "fifteen centiliters." See you already sound smarter and you increase your child's chances of being accepted at Princeton. Babies love hearing SI prefixes because of the staccato of all the consonants. Trust me.

Learn the prefixes and change your life!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

Which chair will daddy buy next?

Agoosarevol - Swedish for "Please turn this parking lot into condominiums!!"

Eating

Playing while daddy works!

Today while I was hard at work in the office, Baby had the time of her life playing on the floor with a drink bottle (500ml size!) and her turtle toy. At this moment, the sun cast a wonderful bring ray on her as she struggled to pull over my laptop bag. I snapped this with the horrible camera in my Blackberry Curve 8310 but I think the color is pretty good. Look at the delighted air of concentration on her face.

Get your life together, Learn the Metric System

For those of you who know my Metric nerd tendencies, I'm pleased to indulge you with a new document posted by the USMA (United States Metric Associate). It's a wonderful print-ready PDF which helps explain in plain terms the various units of measure.

Please enjoy and be ready for the return of Metrication. Mark my words, people would rather pay 95 cents a liter than $4 a gallon!!

Practical_Guide_to_the_SI.pdf

Two other new things

I forgot to mention:

1. She gives kisses now, albeit open mouthed, very wet and sloppy ones...hey, she's only 9 months old.
2. She started experimenting with her voice - screeches, screams, and other loud noises, especially when on the swing or in the jumperoo.

Oh, and as we watched the slideshow in the post I just made, she got very excited looking at "the other baby". She also LOVES watching "the other baby" in the mirror - it's the first person she looks for in the morning when I bring her into my bed to feed her. Willa leans left to look in the mirror over our bed to see if the other baby is there. What do you know? She's there every morning! :-)

The week in review

Big things happening this week. This is Christie posting, by the way. I'm loading pics, though, so I have to use M's name. Anyway, the big news: Willa's eyes are still fine and she received good marks at her 9-month checkup! The stats:

8.1 kg (17 lb, 13 oz.) - 25th percentile
69.85 cm (27.5 in) length - 25th percentile
45 cm (17.7 in) cranial circumference - 75th percentile (she has big brains, what can I say?)

The doctor was really pleased with her development - physically, vocally, and socially. She gave me the okay to begin weaning from breastfeeding, which is sort of bittersweet. There were many times, especially during the travel pump sessions, when I would've rather been doing other things, but overall it's been a nice experience and one I'm glad I was able to do given our challenges at Willa's birth.

I am REALLY looking forward to packing up the pump and traveling light once again on my work trips. Not having to worry about 3 liters (100 oz.) of milk spoiling due to flight delays...not having to pump in airport bathrooms...not getting mastitis for a third time...no more clogged ducts. But I'm sad because this means Willa is growing up.

That said, I gave her a first sip of whole milk tonight and she liked it. Yay! We'll start giving it to her more frequently and slowly replace nursing sessions. She's eating well, still, and as you'll see below, was using the mesh thingie to enjoy some frozen pureed cherries to soothe the teething. She also had some hummus, so you'll see some hummus-mustache pictures followed by some first sips of milk photos.

Enjoy. We're off to celebrate with friends - one just finished taking the NY Bar exam; Daddy has a work dinner tonight so Willa and I are partying without him.

The lighting is messed up in the first picture but you'll forgive me, right?

Willa models her new summer hat

Steps

Willa has been standing for quite some time as you know. She has even started standing on her own with support (she does this in the pack and play by holding the railing). Today however she took her own steps. I provided stability but the decision to move forward was hers... mostly. This is just a short clip but it's enough to see her new skill. We probably walked around the dining room for about 20 minutes!

Christie, Willa and our fine city

New Mealtime Gallery

This is a series of photos from last Sunday. After fooling with white balance and saturation I finally decided they really were meant to be black and white... Here you go: