The Number Field

Every year we send our families a DVD containing videos and slideshows that summarize our year. This time we'll be posting most of them online for a broader audience to enjoy. To start with, here's the one that's gotten the most comments.

If the video doesn't show up in your browser, click here .

In the previous post, I hardly mentioned the snow we got. I intend to rectify that now, as well as fill in other details of our holiday activities.

On Christmas morning, we awoke to a dusting of snow. The ground was white, but some blades of grass were still poking through. Someone said that it wasn't officially a "White Christmas" because there wasn't an inch of snow on Christmas morning. I didn't think that there was an official definition for the term, but it turns out that the National Climatic Data Center is in charge of this, and therefore has to have an official definition in order to keep statistics.

I'm always a skeptic about local weather forecasts, especially during wintertime on the east coast. It seems to me that forecasters know only one thing with certainty: if they make bold predictions, they'll deliver eyeballs to their advertisers, and there won't be negative consequences if they're wrong. Despite my skepticism, the forecasters won the day and we did get more snow later in the afternoon and evening, enough so that church was cancelled the following morning.

Elena had wanted to enjoy in the snow the previous evening, but it was too late by the time any substantial accumulation had occurred. The next morning we both got bundled up and headed out. Elena loves the snowmen that show up in all of her winter books, so I tried to build one for her. Unfortunately, the snow stuck to my knit wool gloves too much for me to get a big snowball rolling. Instead, we threw a couple of small snowballs at fences and trees.

Grandma Nancy told us that there was a sled in the garage. We found it and I pulled Elena around the yard. There's nothing quite like the sound of a toddler laughing--I grow to appreciate it more every day. When she wanted to take a break, I took a solo trip down the big hill in their front yard, which was too dangerous for her. She watched with great enjoyment from the top of the hill.

By this time, Grandma had come out to shovel the long, steep driveway. Elena always wants to be helpful, so we went in search of a shovel. For her we found a big dustpan that worked well enough. I didn't want to be the only one not working, so I found a shovel for myself and helped out with the work.

When we finished that task, I offered Elena another sledding run around the yard. This one ended in a minor catastrophe--I tried to make a turn at the bottom of a small hill and cut the corner too tight. Elena spilled out of the sled face-first into the fresh snow. The cold shocked her with its immediacy, and the only way I found to console or at least distract her was to go down the big hill again. Perhaps she hoped that I would also crash.

After that we went inside and woke Jenny up prematurely from a morning nap. Elena just doesn't know how to cuddle quietly. I hope that her unfortunate faceplant doesn't become the thing she remembers about our snow playtime. If we get more snow, I want her to be excited to go out and play in it. Next time I'll be sure to wear gloves that are better for making snowmen.

Merry Christmas to all! Our holiday was wonderful, we are so blessed. The only thing we have to worry about now is where to keep all of the toys and play apparatus that Elena received as gifts, and possibly what to remove from her play area in order to make space. I don't think I would be able to give a full list of her presents, but here are some that we played with or used today:

• An art table from her grandparents: the table and benches are covered in chalkboard paint, and there's a roll of butcher paper for crayons (and eventually painting). She usually wants me to color with her--Jenny says I can say no, but it's so hard.
• New clothes, including some Hello Kitty items and warm fleece hoodies: after opening them, she wanted to cuddle them like blankets; maybe wearing them helped her be extra comfortable on our drive home today.
• The Toy Story movies: Elena received the first two as presents, but the third one was her present to me . We watched the first one yesterday, the second one today, and now Jenny's prepared for the finale. Elena's attention and devotion to the movies is impressive: it's even helping her understand conditional statements, e.g. "if you want the movie to keep going, then you have to take a bite of this tuna casserole."
• A tambourine and maracas: we had a rousing music and dance session this evening with the help of her new musical instruments. She loves the maracas--Jenny says they're her favorite at the Music Makers group, and she always wants more than just two. I did my best to show her how fun a tambourine could do, because it jingles and it's a drum.
• A play tent and tunnel : this one failed to meet expectiations, because it broke even as I was setting it up. The sleeves joining the poles are so weak that several of them cracked under the minimal strain of holding up the tent. Elena liked it so much that I want to fix it, but I also plan to complain to the manufacturer. At least the tunnel seems ready for playtime.
• Books, including Goodnight Moon : Elena already loves them, although she thinks each new book increases our bedtime reading quota.
• Trains: our little girl has a growing love for trains, and turning on the train around the Christmas tree was a highlight of every day for her. I was happy that I picked up some little wooden train cars as a last minute stocking stuffer.

Aside from presents and fun time with family, our trip featured experimentation with new recipes. Thanks to the recipe calendar Leisa and Sam gave as a present last year, we made German (or Popeye) pancakes for Christmas breakfast. They were very well received, and unlike the other culinary experiments, were ready on time.

For Christmas Eve dinner, everyone pitched in to make Chinese dinner. The main courses, Kung Pao Chicken and Mongolian Beef, are two of my favorites and were as good as any I've had. Our contribution was egg rolls. Not only did the rolls take longer than expected to make, but our technique needs improvement--although they looked nice before going in the fryer, somehow I kept poking holes in them leading to vegetables spilling into the hot oil. They were still tasty, mainly because they were deep fried.

For our big Christmas dinner, Kevin braved the snowstorm to grill Cornish game hens. Because of the cold temperatures, they took longer than expected to cook. They were delicious, and a clever variation on the standard turkey or ham holiday fare.

There's much to write about. I'll have to add a second post for the overflow. One final note--with the major snowstorm on the east coast this weekend, you might expect this post to have some description of our travel travails. However, in the spirit of The Amazing Race , which improved considerably when the producers decided to show more of challenges and scenery, and less of teams bickering inside of indistinguishable airports, I'm only going to say a little bit about our travel. We missed the snow so the driving were mostly uneventful: more traffic than desirable, but not as bad as it could have been. Elena was pretty good on the way down, and perfect on the way back. She's happy to be sleeping in her own bed tonight, as are we.

This is the tale of our return trip from Austin. We're already in the midst of our Christmas trip to visit Jenny's mom. While our drive down was relatively painless, there's a possibility of snow in the forecast for our return trip, and I only want to have one adventure in the writing queue at a time.

The weather was beautiful in Texas, and we got to the airport in plenty of time for our flight. It's amazing how easy it is to get through the lines without a toddler in tow. Microsoft and Southwest had a display where we could get our pictures taken with Santa. They were using it to show off the impressive automated photo editing in Windows 7--it was pretty cool.

Just before boarding we got the first indication that not everything would be entirely smooth. Due to delays in Atlanta, we wouldn't be able to take off on time. They had us get on the plane and push back from the gate so that we could possibly take advantage of an earlier than expected release. It didn't happen. The pilot communicated with us frequently, and the attendants kept us as comfortable as possible, but we almost exhausted the three hour tarmac waiting window. Before all hope was gone, the pilot came back on the intercom with the news that we were next in line for takeoff.

With the three hour delay we knew we would miss our connection in Atlanta. I connected to the in-flight internet, which was free thanks to a holiday promotion, and tried to rebook us. It didn't work--I think that they closed off the system because Atlanta was so congested that their online systems couldn't handle everything. I was able to find that there were two flights scheduled for later that evening, but I had no idea whether we'd be able to get on one of them.

As soon as we touched down, I got on the phone with customer service and learned that they couldn't guarantee us seats before Monday afternoon. When I called my mother, she said it would be fine--she sounded excited to spend another day with Elena and have an excuse to take of work. Our hopes weren't high, but we decided to at least make an effort to get a flight home that evening.

The later flight was leaving from the gate next to our arrival, but we decided to make the trip to the far end of the next terminal and try for the earlier flight. We saw the gate while we were still far away, because it was the one with a crowd of people around the desk. The plane was already boarding, so Jenny took up a post watching the video status board, where she saw that we were about thirtieth on the standby list, and only moving up slowly. I lingered in the vicinity of the desk for a little while, until I realized that there were many people more frustrated than me, including one woman who had been assured she had a seat, but now couldn't get on.

At this point the craziness exploded. The desk agent must have reasoned that anyone who had a ticket but wasn't already checked in wouldn't be making it, and made the apparently unilateral decision to fill the rest of the plane with people from the crowd in front of her. She only had a small supporting cast: one gate agent scanning boarding passes, and an airline worker in an orange vest who she pressed into service on the other computer terminal.

I can't be entirely sure about what was going on behind the desk, but I've tried to piece things together. The desk agent and orange vest guy were looking for unclaimed seats. Whenever they found one, they reassigned it to someone else and called out that person's name. That person headed straight to the scanner, expecting to have their ticket scanned. But the gate agent wasn't processing people fast enough, so there was a line. That doesn't sound so bad, but it created a feedback loop: because the people in line hadn't checked in, the just-assigned seat showed up as unclaimed, and whichever person hadn't just assigned it rebooked it for someone else! So by the time, mere moments later, that the person just called got to the front of the line, their boarding pass wouldn't scan. It didn't take too long for this to turn into even greater chaos.

Even though our names hadn't risen any higher on the displayed standby list, all of a sudden I heard the desk agent calling a mangled version of our last name--Jenny said she wouldn't have even recognized it, but it was a variant I heard often enough as a child. I called back to her, making sure that she was actually calling us to board, and received the go-ahead. Like others before us, when we got to the front of the line, our boarding passes wouldn't scan.

We stood our ground--not yelling or complaining, just pointing out that we had just barely been called--until the desk agent told orange-vest to get us on the plane. Just a moment later, he came over to scan our boarding passes personally. As he did, he put a finger to his lips as if to tell us to keep quiet. We didn't realize why until we saw that we had been assigned first class seats. Proceeding down the jetway, we sidestepped the woman loudly complaining to a flight attendant that she and her husband should have been given first class seats because of his frequent flyer status, and quietly settled into the last two seats in the cabin.

The flight was a dream--our first time in first class. We only had a light lunch, and had forgone dinner to get right to the plane. We asked if the flight had any snack boxes for purchase; that was the most substantial thing that we hoped for, but our flight attendant didn't seem to know what we were talking about. Just a moment later, the first class snack service came through: fruit, chips, and candy, all free of charge. We were told to take as much as we wanted, because they had plenty.

We stretched out in our big first-class seats and watched an episode of The Office that was on the overhead television. The flight seemed exceptionally smooth; maybe it just feels better in the front of the plane? As we started to descend, the flight attendant reappeared with a snack box in hand. We scarfed it down, both because we were hungry and didn't have much time before we had to stow everything under the seats in front of us.

After landing we made good time getting our car and luggage, in that order, which is a sad statement about luggage retrieval, even more so because the car was parked in the farthest lot. We drove the almost-deserted highway to my parents' house for a midnight reunion with Elena. She didn't sleep in the car on the way home, but didn't cry either, and went right to bed when we got her back home. The whole day was like a dream. Parts of it were scary, sometimes it didn't make much sense, but in the end everything turned out better than expected.

We braved the coldest night of this already cold winter to find a Christmas tree. All of us bundled up in several layers of our warmest clothes. I put on two shirts, a sweatshirt, and my coat, along with boots and my warm gloves. Jenny wore something similar. Elena wore her boots also, as well as the fleece jumpsuit that her grandma made for last year's Thanksgiving trip. On top of that, we put on her heavy coat and her new mittens. Not everything matched, but at least she was warm. She was so bundled up that I had to let the car seat straps all the way out, just to buckle her in.

Jenny and I have different childhood Christmas tree traditions. Her family always went to a tree lot, while my family would always go to a tree farm and cut our own. There weren't any tree farms in Texas, so we didn't have any choice. This year, even though I had wanted to go to a tree farm, I couldn't find any close to us and it would have taken a great deal more time on that cold, cold night, so I'm glad Jenny convinced me to go to a lot.

The first lot had beautiful trees and friendly attendants, but was too expensive for our taste. Even though we didn't buy anything, they gave Elena a candy cane. They even told us where to find other nearby lots that had a wider variety of trees. We knew where one of them was because of the giant inflatable snowman we had driven by many times already.

That lot was where we found our tree. The attendant was just as friendly, and his gift for Elena was even better: a baby tree made out of the scraps from other trees. We chose a white pine, not too big, but with a nice shape and a good place for our star. Jenny decorated it that night after Elena went to bed, and Elena was enchanted when she came downstairs the next morning to see it. Now every morning she wants to turn on its lights as soon as she comes downstairs in the morning. It's the right tree for us.

Jenny and I left Elena with her grandparents this weekend so we could return to Austin for a wedding. While there we missed her, as did everyone we saw, but it was probably better that she didn't join us. My mother committed to being a full-time grandma this weekend, and Elena loved playing with her. And while she would have enjoyed most of the trip, the travel segments would probably have been miserable for all three of us.

Our trip out on Friday went extremely smoothly--no lines at the airport, on-time flights, a friendly agent at the car rental desk in Austin, and sunny warm weather. We spent the evening with John and Karina, catching up with them and playing with Elena's cousins. They've all grown noticeably since we last saw them, especially Ainsley, who is now a real little person and not just a baby.

On Saturday morning we decided we could make better use of our time by splitting up. Jenny went to visit her friend Michi, while I attended a rowing event associated with the wedding. Jeff and Caroline, the happy couple, are both rowing coaches, so they invited all their guests to spend some time on the water. They put a few experienced rowers in each boat along with the true novices, then we went out and all tried to figure things out.

It was a lot of fun. After sub-freezing temperatures in the mid-Atlantic, it was amazing to be on the water at all, much less in short sleeves under a bright blue sky. The novices in my boat picked things up quickly and made the ride very smooth. We didn't win the short race at the end of the event, but we did the best we could.

During the middle of the day we joined John and Karina for some family activities. There was an open house at their stake center featuring a display of several hundred Nativity scenes, ranging from the Little People Nativity to artistic and beautiful ones in a variety of media. Their church building opened only a couple of months ago, so John gave us a tour--it's pretty nice. After the open house, we picked out a Christmas tree. John and Karina have high standards, so Jenny and I occupied the kids by racing them around in shopping carts.

We didn't have much time for a rest before the main event, which took place at a beautiful location overlooking Austin. Aside from the fact that the weather had turned colder, everything about the wedding was wonderful. Caroline was beautiful, Jeff looked great in his tux, all their friends and family were there.

One sweet moment of the wedding was the 'children's parade'--a variant on the traditional flower girl theme. Just before Caroline walked down the aisle, all of the children at the wedding (except for one reluctant little cowboy) walked down the aisle, each carrying a Gerbera daisy to put in a vase at the front. At the end of the ceremony, Jeff gave those flowers to Caroline as her bouquet.

The rest of the evening was just as nice as the ceremony. Since moving, we've missed all the good Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine, so we were really happy when dinner came around--the appetizers included chips and guacamole, and the main courses were fajitas and enchiladas.

After some very nice toasts, we went back outside for dancing to the tunes of the Sunset Valley Boys . I'm not sure that Jenny and I have ever danced before, but we were having such a good time and wanted to stay warm, so we joined in for a couple of numbers. We were getting tired, so we said our goodbyes and headed out.

After waking up on Thursday morning, Elena didn't want her diaper changed. Jenny had an idea for how to get her out of the diaper, although it did not involve putting on a new one. They've been spending time with another mother and daughter, and even though the daughter is several months younger than Elena, she's already mostly potty trained. (They've worked on it almost since birth.) Visits to their house include considerable time sitting on potties.

This was the kernel of Jenny's plan: she asked Elena if she wanted to have some potty time. Elena agreed, and the diaper came off. Some time ago we picked up a children's potty from someone on freecycle, so that was what she used. Jenny proceeded to work on breakfast, checking in every minute or two.

Elena doesn't like to stay on the potty for very long at a time, so she alternated sitting down and standing up. Whenever she stood up, Jenny asked if she was done. After replying with an emphatic 'no,' Elena would sit back down. Jenny didn't expect anything to happen--Elena hasn't yet shown a serious inclination towards self-training. But during a check to see if Elena was ready to have a diaper on again, she saw that Elena had used the potty for its intended purpose! After that she was ready to return to the diaper.

I promise not to turn this blog into a chronicle of potty training, but this one moment was worth mentioning.

We usually try to get rid of possessions that have fallen into disrepair or out of use. Even though our current residence is bigger than our previous one, it's still too small to provide storage for lots of extra stuff. Elena often changes our ideas of what's in disrepair our out of use.

For instance, we have two straw hats that she loves to play with. She got one as an easter present from the dollar store almost a year ago. It's construction was about what could be expected from the dollar store, so it's been gradually unravelling in the course of play. But it has found a place of honor as the stuffed dog's permanent headgear, and if it ever disappeared Elena would certainly notice and complain. I hope that we will be able to replace it with a new model next spring.

The second hat is a cowboy hat trimmed with a tiger print band that I got when I participated in a triathlon more than five years ago. I never wore it, and several times Jenny asked me if we wouldn't be better off throwing it out. I foolishly insisted that we keep it around, and it paid off. When Elena's Easter hat started to go downhill, we moved it to a less conspicuous area and replaced it with the cowboy hat. It now finds a regular role during playtime. Often she wants me or Jenny to wear it, but sometimes she'll put it on herself. I don't know how much Elena engages in 'pretend play'--does she have some scenario in mind when we wear the silly hat?--but she does really like it.

An adventure broke out in the middle of our weekend family trip, a weekend visit with Leisa and Sam. We left early enough that the Friday afternoon traffic hadn't been too bad. Elena was behaving well in the back seat, looking for green cars. We were headed north on the freeway when all of a sudden the car's engine stuttered and the check engine light came on.

The next exit was three or four miles down the road, so we merged into the right lane and proceeded carefully. It was clear that something wasn't quite right with the engine, but we were still moving. Even though it seemed like we had landed in the middle of nowhere, we found a gas station where the attendant pointed us down the road to the nearest mechanic. That shop was closed, but by this time we had the GPS out and took solace in its suggestion that there would be another mechanic in about a mile.

This auto shop--Southern Auto Tech--still had some people inside. I found the owner inside, and he sent one of his technicians out to run a diagnostic. The technician told us that the crank sensor was reporting an error, but that if we could start it up again we should be able to make it somewhere close. At that point we decided to call off our trip and head home, but the car had a different plan because it wouldn't even start up.

At that point we started to understand how lucky we were to have found this place in particular. While we tried to figure out what to do, the shop owner was trying to find us a part. If we had been in real trouble, he would have driven more than an hour to get the part and install it late at night. We thanked him for the effort, but it wasn't worth all the trouble; we had other options.

We were grateful for those other options. My parents and brother Luke live about half an hour from where we broke down, so we gave them a call. Although Luke was willing to come get his, we don't all fit into his truck. My parents abandoned their scheduled dinner date to come help us. We were glad that they were available and willing to rescue us.

Of course they couldn't get there instantly, so the shop owner's wife, who also seemed to be the main front-office worker, offered to drive us to someplace where we could get some dinner. Although there were closer places, she drove us all the way to a large shopping center with several restaurants, including the McDonald's where we ended up (it had a PlayPlace), and a variety of shopping options. It was a nice place to spend the evening.

The only things Elena would eat at dinner were french fries. Remembering my own childhood, I found it hard to believe that she wouldn't want even a bite of cheeseburger. She did like drinking water form a straw, although that process was not without spillage. Mostly she bided her time until we let her go into the PlayPlace.

She had a grand time in there, even if she did want to be able to climb higher with the big kids. At some point two girls helped her up to the next level of one of the areas, but I intervened before they helped her all the way to the top. Secretly, I wanted to let them do it so that I could go up and retrieve her, but I knew that it would be more responsible not to ever let her get that far away.

So this is what adventure looks like with a toddler--unexpectedly hanging out at McDonald's while waiting for a ride. She didn't even realize we were having an adventure until those girls helped her climb further up into the PlayPlace.

In due time my parents showed up and drove us back to their house, where we spent the night. Elena loved saying goodnight to everyone, including Luna the dog. The next morning my mother had an appointment close to where we lived, so after a hot breakfast that made up for the complimentary one we would have gotten in our non-refundable hotel room, she returned us to my car. Tomorrow Jenny and I will head out (possibly leaving Elena with a friend) to get the repaired car.

I do think I'll get a more grownup sized adventure tomorrow morning, because I plan to bike in to work in freezing, windy conditions. I hope that's the most adventurous part of the day, and the car recovery goes smoothly.

I may not ever forget what happened last night. Yesterday we spent a quiet day at home. I spent a lot of time with Elena, because Jenny had to finish preparing a talk she'll be giving today in church. Everything had gone exceptionally well, especially for me, because Elena had chosen to be a Daddy's girl.

When her normal eight o'clock bedtime rolled around, everything changed. For no discernible reason, Elena started to cry while Jenny was putting on her pajamas. Although I usually read her some bedtime stories, she rejected me and Jenny had to do it. Her crying was still on a hair trigger, but there didn't seem to be anything causing it. When we tried to sing to her and put her down, she wailed like a banshee. Once we picked her up again, she quieted down surprisingly quickly.

I'm convinced that she just didn't want to go to bed. We tried everything we could think of--we let her play a while longer, read more books, gave her some warm milk. Jenny and I alternated turns in her darkened room, rocking her until she fell asleep. But each time we tried to transfer her to her crib, she woke up again and started crying.

Near midnight, I told Jenny that she needed to sleep and I would do what it took to put Elena down. After we watched a little TV, she seemed ready and we headed upstairs. I let her lead me into the master bedroom instead of her own, which was a huge mistake, because she climbed into bed with Jenny, who was still not asleep. If that had helped Elena to fall asleep, we may have taken it, but it only served the purpose of waking Jenny up again.

Finally, I barricaded Elena and myself into her room, with the lights out. I lay down on the floor and tried to wait her out, but she kept on playing with her toys, even though the lights were out. I put toys and books in her crib, to entice her to go into it, but as soon as I attempted to place her in there, the waterworks started again.

I'm not proud that my anger level started to rise. I tried to show some self control and go back to the only technique that had worked at least partially. I held and rocked her, and despite her initial resistance she again fell asleep before too long. Once she drifted off, I held her longer than before, waiting for her to fall into a different stage of sleep.

With my arms falling asleep, I carefully stood up from the rocking chair. Elena started to stir, and I worried. By the time I got her into the crib, I was worried because she appeared to have woken; she sat right up. Instead of crying, though, a miracle occurred: it was as if she had forgotten all of the night's strife. She seemed to be back to her normal self, happy to go to sleep. She laid down, I put her blankets over her, she waved goodbye and said ni-ni , and I walked out. When I closed the door, nothing happened. She was going to sleep.