Friday, March 31, 2006
The first of many
Lindsay Campbell Taggart's independent stroll through life began in earnest today, with two unassisted, teetering, Frankenstein-like but still adorable steps between me and her mother.
You know, as a parent, that big milestones like this are going to happen. And with walking, you often know it "could be any day," based on the amount of pain in your back from leaning over to support a 29-inch being by the fingertips. But then, right before your eyes, it happens. Your little girl flops one foot down and then another and, with no support, makes her way from your wife to you. You pause, not certain that you just saw what you saw, and then you celebrate. And then you spend many minutes trying to get her to repeat it...but this gal doesn't like to act on cue.
Today, March 31, 2006 -- Lindsay walked.
Earlier practice session seen below.
You know, as a parent, that big milestones like this are going to happen. And with walking, you often know it "could be any day," based on the amount of pain in your back from leaning over to support a 29-inch being by the fingertips. But then, right before your eyes, it happens. Your little girl flops one foot down and then another and, with no support, makes her way from your wife to you. You pause, not certain that you just saw what you saw, and then you celebrate. And then you spend many minutes trying to get her to repeat it...but this gal doesn't like to act on cue.
Today, March 31, 2006 -- Lindsay walked.
Earlier practice session seen below.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
What's goin' down
It's hard to keep up with all the new developments in Lindsay's life. Here in the 13th month, it appears she's just ready to do a whole bunch of new things, and Nicola recites a daily list of what I've missed while I'm at work. A sampling (some of which I did witness):
- Walking a lot, but not quite on her own. Tuesday, the Bean moved from walking with two hands of adults to one hand. Any day now, she's stroll off, unaided.
- Some sign language, like for milk and banana.
- Nicola swears she said "thank you" yesterday.
- Identifying things in books, like pointing to an apple if you say "which is one is the apple?"
- Copying actions -- like picking up a doll and rocking it in her arms, then putting the baby on her shoulder and patting it gently...just like we do with her! Lindsay did this with me Monday in the playroom, picking up a little doll over and over again as I said "rock the baby." Damn, that was cute at its cutest, let me tell ya.
What a great age -- full of wonder and discovery and milestones. I say this now, and I know I said it over and over again with Ella as she grew up. Heck, I say it now about her at the age of six. Each age, or stage, reveals a bit more of the mysteries hidden inside your kids -- their personality, sense of humor, likes and dislikes, how they laugh, what makes them proud, how they make friends, introvert or extrovert, etc. The layers peel away as the months pile up, and next thing you know, you find yourself explaining to your 6-year-old why you just confessed (while making a joke to adult dinner companions) to drinking as a freshman in college when you weren't of legal age (that was some corner Ella backed me into!). God help me in about eight years!
Lindsay loves to swing, and hates getting off the swing. That's one of her new things too -- expressing intentional disagreement with the path chosen by one of her parents.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
The girl is growing
I haven't posted any photos in a while. Here goes:
I can't make sense of how this page gets formatted, but the pictures include:
1) Lindsay making friends during breakfast on the morning of her birthday (Feb. 24)
2) Giggles on the changing table, also on her birthday
3) Photo with Mommy
4) Showing off her new teeth (and smile)
I can't make sense of how this page gets formatted, but the pictures include: 1) Lindsay making friends during breakfast on the morning of her birthday (Feb. 24)
2) Giggles on the changing table, also on her birthday
3) Photo with Mommy
4) Showing off her new teeth (and smile)
Commence smooching
Dook gets enough praise in the media...we don't need decent reporters heaping more on that is factually unjustified. I read something on ESPN.com that prompted me to fly this e-mail off to Deadspin:
------------------------------
I usually like Andy Katz, but this is just lazy:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney06/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=2378395
He falls all over himself to praise Dook for nine straight Sweet 16 trips, and says:
"John Wooden's seven straight NCAA titles (10 total) at UCLA might be the hardest college basketball record to break.
Don't be surprised, though, if Mike Krzyzewski's nine straight Sweet 16 appearances at Duke ends up being just as difficult to approach."
Um, that record is approached and passed, pal. North Carolina went to something like 13 straight Sweet Sixteens, with the run ending in 1994 with a second-round loss to Boston College at the Cap Center outside of D.C. A while ago, but still. He references John Wooden -- I can reference 1994. At least I think that's the case...I am a UNC grad and I was at that 1994 game as a stringer for the Durham Morning-Herald.
But perhaps time has faded my memory, or the source of my degree has warped it.
I feel better. Thanks.
Bill Taggart
(wftpdx occasional commenter on deadspin)
------------------------------
I usually like Andy Katz, but this is just lazy:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/ncaatourney06/columns/story?columnist=katz_andy&id=2378395
He falls all over himself to praise Dook for nine straight Sweet 16 trips, and says:
"John Wooden's seven straight NCAA titles (10 total) at UCLA might be the hardest college basketball record to break.
Don't be surprised, though, if Mike Krzyzewski's nine straight Sweet 16 appearances at Duke ends up being just as difficult to approach."
Um, that record is approached and passed, pal. North Carolina went to something like 13 straight Sweet Sixteens, with the run ending in 1994 with a second-round loss to Boston College at the Cap Center outside of D.C. A while ago, but still. He references John Wooden -- I can reference 1994. At least I think that's the case...I am a UNC grad and I was at that 1994 game as a stringer for the Durham Morning-Herald.
But perhaps time has faded my memory, or the source of my degree has warped it.
I feel better. Thanks.
Bill Taggart
(wftpdx occasional commenter on deadspin)
Monday, March 20, 2006
14:59 and counting down
I'm back from my Florida (hey, that's Paul Anka at the Sarasota Ritz-Carlton!) and Salt Lake City (Adam Morrison is even more greasy in person -- walking through my hotel lobby -- than on TV!) trips.
Thanks to my pal Thad, we are minor celebrities in Albany: see this newspaper article. What it doesn't include yet is the follow-up: T-shirts arrived, in a $130 box of joy (thanks, overnight shipping). But they were NOT the ones we requested.
And this was just one of the many "gut punches" or kicks in the business that we were subjected to over the weekend. SLC was not a kind hostess...she was downright nasty, in fact, although perhaps we over personified the city and its nefarious plans for us. But that's what got us through -- joking about SLC puppet-stringing us with dark moments in basement restaurant bathrooms, messengers of doom lurking outside cab windows giving us the "evil eye," a hate rally that proclaimed "Death to Babylon," people in arena seats who have no sense of personal space and unfortunate body odors, warm beer...oh, I could go on and on.
We survived...and we of course doth protest too much about our poor suffering during our guys' weekend away.
Thanks to my pal Thad, we are minor celebrities in Albany: see this newspaper article. What it doesn't include yet is the follow-up: T-shirts arrived, in a $130 box of joy (thanks, overnight shipping). But they were NOT the ones we requested.
And this was just one of the many "gut punches" or kicks in the business that we were subjected to over the weekend. SLC was not a kind hostess...she was downright nasty, in fact, although perhaps we over personified the city and its nefarious plans for us. But that's what got us through -- joking about SLC puppet-stringing us with dark moments in basement restaurant bathrooms, messengers of doom lurking outside cab windows giving us the "evil eye," a hate rally that proclaimed "Death to Babylon," people in arena seats who have no sense of personal space and unfortunate body odors, warm beer...oh, I could go on and on.
We survived...and we of course doth protest too much about our poor suffering during our guys' weekend away.
Thursday, March 09, 2006
I'm a Lesbian Stud with Bisexual Tendencies
Got your attention, didn't I? Where else but on NPR in the San Francisco area can you hear the above line in a radio commentary? I learned something about the vernacular and the relationship "rules" of the LGBT community -- all from a high school senior. There are wide swaths of America where this girl would not have the courage to admit to herself that she was a "lesbian stud with bisexual tendencies," let alone go on the radio to announce this. Fascinating, and bless this open-minded corner of America.
Off to Florida tomorrow for work -- Sarasota area. I may be able to catch a Pirates spring training game in Bradenton on Sunday...if Carolina is not playing in the ACC Tournament finals. Oh, and spending time with my parents, who are snowbirding it in Siesta Key for two weeks at the same time I'm in the area.
Anyway, blogging hiatus time again.
Ella update: got a "big girl" bike for her birthday, but I haven't seen her ride it yet (it's at her Mom's). Lindsay update: was in the 10th percentile for weight but around 75th percentile for height and head size at her 1 year check up. That's our little supermodel! Or Q-Tip, perhaps? She's shown little interest in walking yet, which is fine. She's had enough to deal with lately -- another ear infection and pink eye. Hooray for day care!
I'll post a new photo soon. Until next week...
Off to Florida tomorrow for work -- Sarasota area. I may be able to catch a Pirates spring training game in Bradenton on Sunday...if Carolina is not playing in the ACC Tournament finals. Oh, and spending time with my parents, who are snowbirding it in Siesta Key for two weeks at the same time I'm in the area.
Anyway, blogging hiatus time again.
Ella update: got a "big girl" bike for her birthday, but I haven't seen her ride it yet (it's at her Mom's). Lindsay update: was in the 10th percentile for weight but around 75th percentile for height and head size at her 1 year check up. That's our little supermodel! Or Q-Tip, perhaps? She's shown little interest in walking yet, which is fine. She's had enough to deal with lately -- another ear infection and pink eye. Hooray for day care!
I'll post a new photo soon. Until next week...
Monday, March 06, 2006
What I look at
Never again shall I live-blog a UNC-Dook game, for that is clearly the reason the Heels lost a few weeks back. How else to explain Saturday night's inexplicable upset at Dook on senior night? There I was, not blogging -- just watching the game with Ella and trying to explain to a six-year-old what "superstitious" means when I ask her to please sit on the same couch cushion where she was sitting when Carolina was playing its best. "I know it doesn't make sense that I somehow believe where we sit will make a difference in that game happening on TV, but I do, and that's why superstitions are irrational." "What does irrational mean?" And back we go to the dictionary, where I attempt to take Webster's words and translate them into kindergarten.
Ella was such a good sport, watching the game with Daddy. Carolina has moved into one of the three teams she likes, along with the Warriors and Cal. But she's still not fully brainwashed -- I suggested that she might go to UNC and she said maybe she should go somewhere that neither of her parents went so nobody got upset. A dozen years away, and she's already worried about her parents' feelings -- such a sensitive soul, that Ella.
Anyway, I've been less than inspired in this space recently. In that vein, I'll share what sites and blogs I regularly peruse, if you care:
http://www.xtcian.com/: Ian Williams' blog
http://tarheel22.livejournal.com/: Eric Gribbin's blog
http://html.wral.com/sh/blogger/wralglenn.html: Dave Glenn on ACC sports
http://obscurestore.typepad.com/: Romenesko's obscure store
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45: Romenesko
http://www.boingboing.net/
http://espn.go.com/
http://trueinsights.blogspot.com/: Nicola's blog
http://www.deadspin.com/: blog on sports
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/: what's really happening in the bay area
http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/
http://www.tvgasm.com
http://www.wonkette.com/ (and some of the rest of the Gawker empire)
I'm sure I'm missing some. I suppose I could just send you the link to my del.icio.us page, but that's not quite updated. I'm still getting used to the idea of putting all my favorites there. Web 2.0 hasn't quite overtaken my world.
And I do still get lots done...but why not enjoy the rich informational offerings of the Internet?
Ella was such a good sport, watching the game with Daddy. Carolina has moved into one of the three teams she likes, along with the Warriors and Cal. But she's still not fully brainwashed -- I suggested that she might go to UNC and she said maybe she should go somewhere that neither of her parents went so nobody got upset. A dozen years away, and she's already worried about her parents' feelings -- such a sensitive soul, that Ella.
Anyway, I've been less than inspired in this space recently. In that vein, I'll share what sites and blogs I regularly peruse, if you care:
http://www.xtcian.com/: Ian Williams' blog
http://tarheel22.livejournal.com/: Eric Gribbin's blog
http://html.wral.com/sh/blogger/wralglenn.html: Dave Glenn on ACC sports
http://obscurestore.typepad.com/: Romenesko's obscure store
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=45: Romenesko
http://www.boingboing.net/
http://espn.go.com/
http://trueinsights.blogspot.com/: Nicola's blog
http://www.deadspin.com/: blog on sports
http://www.beyondchron.org/news/: what's really happening in the bay area
http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/
http://www.tvgasm.com
http://www.wonkette.com/ (and some of the rest of the Gawker empire)
I'm sure I'm missing some. I suppose I could just send you the link to my del.icio.us page, but that's not quite updated. I'm still getting used to the idea of putting all my favorites there. Web 2.0 hasn't quite overtaken my world.
And I do still get lots done...but why not enjoy the rich informational offerings of the Internet?
