The Number Field

Before I write more about the New York trip, I want to share an email Elena sent me today. I think that she had Jenny take the pictures:

From: Elena To: Daddy

Dear Daddy,

Mommy was at her desk getting ready to go shopping and this is what I was doing. I was just trying to help straighten things up.

Let me know if you need any help too.

love, Elena

PS - Mommy had me go play in the front room, but I thought I should maybe help Jewel instead.

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We had an amazing whirlwind trip to New York for Thanksgiving. I could go on and on about it, but I'm going to try to give my impressions in a more concise format: short impressions of all the different experiences we had.

The trip out: I can't imagine anything more smooth than what we had. It was a dream, especially compared to the interminable drive that Jenny's family had from Virginia. Elena was a perfect angel, and she even napped in our arms on both plane trips. We had worried that she wouldn't, but the gentle vibrations of the plane along with our soft singing kept her sleepy.

The hotel: Even though it was closed for most of our trip, I'm thankful that we were upgraded to the "club level" of our hotel. They had free snacks and desserts our first night, and an access code for free internet that helped us the entire time.

Downtown Newark: We went out to pick up a to-go dinner order and drove through the mean streets of Newark after 8:00. I don't think I would like to do that on a regular basis.

Public Transportation in New York: After some frantic trial and error, we discovered that 1) A credit card can only be used for two transactions per day at the MetroCard kiosks, and 2) A single MetroCard, no matter how much money was loaded on it, can only be used four times in a row before you have to take a break. It would be nice if this information was posted somewhere, so that I didn't have to frantically swipe and re-swipe my card while the rest of the group was already on the platform, watching our subway leave the station.

The Thanksgiving Day Parade: It was nice of my family to get up early and save us a spot right along the parade route at 65th and Central Park West. When we arrived, we discovered that there was no possible way we could push through the crowd to meet them. Instead, we walked down to a slightly less crowded area and pushed in as far as we could. I put Elena on my shoulders so she could have the best view, and she enjoyed the parade more than I thought she would. Her favorite group by far was her grandpa's marching band, the Towson University Tigers. On balance, it was a fun experience and almost all of the people around us were very nice. Except for the couple where the guy put his wife on his shoulders--that should be kids only. Thanks to Nick for all the great pictures.

Thanksgiving Day: Despite the predictions of rain, we spent some time in Central Park and all of a sudden the sky was clear. While we walked down Fifth avenue towards Rockefeller Center Laura put a shawl in front of sleeping Elena's face so that she wouldn't get sunburned. It was hard to see the window displays because of the glare. We took a hot chocolate break at Rockefeller Center and saw a marriage proposal on the ice rink. Later, we stopped at Bryant Park. They use the old Gillette razor model: although the skating is free, the skate rental more than makes up for it. The line was long, so we didn't go skating. We did wander around the holiday shopping booths, and found some cute custom soaps .

Thanksgiving Dinner: We still don't know what the price will be, but we did get to go on the dinner cruise. We had a great time. The dinner was good enough, but the views were spectacular. We went pretty close to the Statue of Liberty. Sadly, some of my pictures didn't turn out because of focus issues. But the ones that did are pretty good.

We didn't get back to our hotel until after midnight--partly because of the aforementioned ticket issues, but also because we got on the wrong subway train and didn't realize it until we had gone two stops too far. It was a full day, and we still had Friday to go. More about that soon; in the meantime, there are more pictures at my flickr photostream .

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After my last post, it's time to return to the main subject of this blog: Elena. She is growing and developing at such a rapid pace that it's hard to keep up with her. We're travelling to New York for the Thanksgiving Day Parade. While there we'll see both sides of the family, and Elena has a host of new tricks to show them.

Just recently we started to see signs of real crawling, but every day it becomes a more established form of movement for Elena. She still shows a strong dominance from the right leg, which she always used as the drive leg for her army crawl. Now she kneels on her left leg and plants her right foot on the floor, pushing off on it to move forward.

She's also much more comfortable pulling herself up into a standing position against any convenient object of the right size. If I'm sitting on the floor, she'll crawl onto my lap and then pull up using my shoulders so that we're face-to-face. Our dining table is currently full of Christmas package preparation, so we've been eating on the couch. Elena always wants to know what's going on, so she'll pull herself up and then use her extremely long arms to try to grab some dinner. Her opinion seems to be that if we're eating, she should be eating too.

Her final new skill, the one designed to elicit the greatest response, is waving hello or goodbye. Elena frequently shakes her hands all around, but usually it just looks like she's a football ref saying "Touchdown!" Now she'll hold her hand in front of herself while opening and shutting it, frequently when she sees someone else doing the same. She doesn't do it all the time, but with a little bit of prompting she'll usually get into it.

Last Friday we took Elena to the doctor for her nine month appointment. She currently stands 29.3 inches tall, and weighs 24 lbs, 9 oz. Her weight and height are still fairly proportional to each other: she's at the 95th percentile for height, and off-the-charts for weight. The doctor said that it's commong for infants to thin out a little bit as they become more mobile with crawling and walking and use more energy.

Everything else at the doctor's appointment went very smoothly. Elena didn't fuss at all, except for one little yelp when she got her flu shots. She got one in each leg, for the seasonal and swine flus, and didn't cry at all after the second one. She was pretty sleepy by the end of the appointment, and went right down for a nap when we got home. Jenny mentioned to the doctor that it seems like Elena's been sleeping a lot, especially during the day. The doctor said that as long as it doesn't affect her nighttime sleep, it's fine for her to take whatever naps she wants. She has a lot of development happening, both mentally and physically, and needs sleep to assist those processes.

As the doctor examined Elena she commented on her good temperament. She said that it's very unusual for a baby to be so good-natured, even while being poked and prodded. Elena wiggled a little bit while the doctor shone the light in her nose and ear, but didn't complain. Mostly she wanted to smile and talk to the doctor and get lots of attention.

We hope that she maintains her sunny temperament this week in New York City, because it will certainly be a new and different experience, with lots of time outside in the cold. But Elena loves to experience new things, and she'll have lots of relatives to help care for her, so we're hoping for the best.

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As happens so often at this time of year I've been caught up in the late semester rush, and so my posting has suffered. However, things are starting to clear up for me now that we have only two weeks of classes left. I gave a final presentation in my Math Biology class on Tuesday, which went pretty well. I only have three more days of Calculus discussions to lead. And I got my car back, so I have an easier time getting to campus or to the bus stop--I'm writing now from the bus while stuck in traffic.

I should probably start with that. My Halloween adventure came the Thursday before Halloween, when I set out to do some home teaching. While driving to my destination, a deer suddenly darted across the road and I caught it full on with my hood and windshield. The deer's hoof smashed my front light, while its shoulder or head put a hole in the passenger side of the windshield and caused the rest to break up in spiderweb patterns. I was shaken up but not injured, and I don't know what happened to the deer, as its momentum carried it across the road.

Luckily, I was pretty close to a gas station, so I turned around and parked there to call Jenny for help and my family for advice (thanks Luke). We decided to take it to a car place that was less than half a mile away. Elena was upset to be out past her bedtime, but I was glad that she and Jenny came to shepherd me to the car place and then drive me home. The car guys found that there was no structural damage to the car, so they banged out the dents enough to install a new headlight, and I had some auto glass people come install a new windshield

I was only without a car for a couple of days, during which I discovered that I could ride my bike to the bus stop in not too much longer than it takes me to drive the distance. However, there are a variety of reasons that make the ride not a practical option on a daily basis, so I'm glad to have my car back, even with all its quirks and deficiencies. A few days later, it developed a new issue--the passenger side window went down and wouldn't go back up. So I took off the door panel, and tried to figure out how to fix it. A neighbor who happens to be a mechanic was taking his trash out and stopped to give me a little advice. He showed me which cables to cut, so I could move the window by hand and clamp it in the closed position. I may not be able to roll the window down, but now I know it will be harder for someone to steal my well-loved but beat up fifteen year old Corolla.

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If this story didn't have a happy ending, I wouldn't be posting that on the blog.

When Jenny and Elena were in Houston two weeks ago , tragedy struck. They were sharing a room and, as expected, Jenny put Elena to bed and turned out the light. Later, when she wanted to go to bed, she didn't want to wake the baby and she only had one thing to do--take of her engagement ring and wedding band and put them on the desk before hopping into bed. Somehow, as she gave the rings a little tug to get them off her finger, Jenny lost her grip and the rings went flying. She reasoned that there wasn't much that could have happened to them, and went to bed with plans of finding them the next morning.

The next morning, the wedding ring was lying in the middle of the room, but the engagement ring was nowhere to be found. During the duration of the stay, Jenny, Matt, and Carrie turned the room inside out and upside down looking for the ring. The room has niether nooks nor crannies, and didn't even have very much furniture in it. Jenny felt bad asking Matt and Carrie for so much help, because they were so busy and stressed out already. All the more so as they are planning to move to Seattle as soon as possible. At least this gave them time to sort through the guest room and make some preliminary decisions about what to get rid of. Eventually, after they had exhausted all visible search avenues, they gave up. Jenny returned home to a birthday week that took on a more muted tone than it otherwise would have.

We decided to return this weekend to have another look. I found a guy near them who rents out a metal detector, and we picked it up before we got to Matt and Carrie's house. I set to work looking at the room. I knew that they had thoroughly searched all of the obvious places, and after a brief search of my own to figure out if there might have been any holes in their strategy, I decided that it was unlikely--I wouldn't find the ring just by going over the same ground. As my thesis advisor once told me: "sometimes, it takes an entirely new idea to make progress on a problem." It's required most often when all of the familiar routes have been thoroughly investigated.

After that, I tried to figure out how to use the metal detector. The instructions indicated that the detector coil should be held parallel to the surface being searched (most often the ground), which made my goal of searching the corners and baseboard areas less practical. I put my wedding band on the ground and passed over it several times, to try to discriminate between the different sounds the detector made depending on the type of metal it found. However, I didn't immediately see how this tool could be put to use in searching an already-searched space, so I took a break from that.

Instead, I picked up an idea from earlier. When we first started searching, Jenny reenacted the incident, indicating her position and the probable escape vector of the rings. She said that she heard a rattling noise when they made contact with the first object in their path, which was a roll top, secretary-style desk against the nearest wall. I decided to take a closer look at it, and finally found something useful. When you open a roll top desk, the top has to roll into something. With this desk, it rolled into an inaccessible slot between the back of the writing area and the back panel of the piece of furniture. Furthermore, the gap into which it rolled was a little bit less than an inch tall. Although it would have to be a million-to-one shot, the ring could have gone into that little slot and slid back into the open area. Furthermore, this would be consistent with Jenny's description of a rattling noise--a ring that hit the wall and bounced off before landing on the floor wouldn't rattle the way a ring would if it was dropping in an enclosed area.

I tried shaking the desk back and forth in the hopes that it would sound like something was lodged in it, but didn't get a very strong indication. Jenny said she thought she heard something, but the sound wasn't there when I tried it again. Jenny suggested that we try the metal detector, and indeed it picked up a signal from a certain part of the desk that had a different sound than the one given off when it passed over the staples securing the back panel to the rest of the desk. Guided by that, I got some tools and started to pry loose the nearby staples. After I got several of them off, I cracked open the panel, peered in, and saw Jenny's ring lying there on top of some envelopes that had been lost probably twenty years ago.

I tried to reach in and grab the ring, but in the process the back panel separated from the shelf where the ring was, and it fell down into the lower part of the desk. This part, however, was already completely accessible, so I reached in from the other side, grabbed the ring, and asked Jenny if she would marry me. Luckily, she said yes, and I returned the ring to its proper place on her finger, next to her wedding band.

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I had a scary adventure on my own last night, but I'll write about that in another post soon. Tonight, we went to a chili cook-off and trunk or treat activity at church. Elena wore her Halloween costume, and I had a great time going around to all the other babies; we looked at all their costumes and I chatted with the parents.

Of course, some of the costumes went well together. Elena didn't really match the princesses and fairies, but she did fit well into the savannah scene.

With all the cars in such close proximity, it was easy for the kids to make multiple stops at each car. Even though we had plenty of candy, when they came back to us after the first time, I made them do costume-related tricks: soldiers had to do an army crawl, princesses had to twirl, and I asked the werewolf to howl at the moon. They didn't seem to mind, and the soldier-types all got to burn off some of their excess energy. The lady next to us even saw how fun it was and adopted the idea too.

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Elena is safely and soundly in bed, and Jenny and I are enjoying one of her birthday presents: a DVD of Pete's Dragon from Jenny's mom. Jenny is singing along with the songs, but I don't know them well enough to join in. In all, I think that Jenny had a very nice birthday week. Our only regret is that we took hardly any pictures to commemorate the events.

As I previously indicated, I prepared a whole week of gifts, starting with homemade candy last Sunday. She also chanced into a sneak preview of her Monday present: while she was away, I fixed two of her lamps, and on Sunday evening she discovered that one of them had the socket mechanism had changed--on Monday, I gave her a lightbulb with a tag asking her to install it.

On Tuesday I brought her roses; she always likes flowers. I got them early in the week so that they would be around for the whole week, especially for her actual birthday the next day. On Wednesday, she opened up the presents and cards from everyone, along with my biggest, riskiest present: a purple blouse. I'll be sure to have a picture soon, but she likes it and I think she looks great wearing it. I tried to buy it to match a particular skirt of hers, but Jenny says it doesn't quite go right--the color is fine, but the textures and patterns don't match. On hearing that, my mother suggested that we go skirt shopping! I didn't have any birthday treats for her, so in the evening, after running some errands, we stopped by the grocery store to get ice cream and a big slice of cake from the bakery.

Thursday's gift was all about bedtime--new pajamas and massage oil. Jenny went out for ice cream with her visiting teachers in the evening, which gave Elena and me time to retrieve the presents from their hiding place and prepare Friday's present. I also managed to give Elena a bath and put her to bed. Jenny was having such a good time that she stayed out a little longer than I had expected.

I could hardly wait for Friday's present, so I gave it to Jenny in the morning. We've been married for three and a half years, and I'm finally almost done with a slideshow of pictures from our wedding. I just have to finish the titles and clean up some of the transitions, but it was good enough for a first viewing. When I do finish it, I'll post it online.

Finally, on Saturday evening we dropped Elena off with Jenny's brother John and family, and headed out for dinner. Jenny wanted Indian , and the restaurant we chose was a nice one. We ordered a combo dinner for two, and it was all good. However, the highlights were probably the naan bread and the assorted Tandoori--chicken, shrimp, and salmon. We capped the night off with a little bit of shopping: first at the brand-new Nordstrom Rack, then at CVS, where Jenny worked her coupon magic to get a lot of Halloween candy for very little money. That was a perfect way to end a wonderful evening and wonderful week.

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This evening, we were all in the living room watching our TiVoed episode of The Amazing Race . As usual, Jenny was trying to figure out who, among all of our friends and relatives, would be the best partner for me--as in, with whom would I have the best chance of getting on the show. Today's candidates: Matt and Ben.

Anyway, Jenny was on the couch and I was on the ground with Elena. She decided that she wanted to get closer to Jenny, so she scooted over next to the corner of the couch and assumed a sitting position. All of a sudden, she decided to grab onto the armrest and start pulling. Then she got her other hand into the action and slowly pulled some more. We had to watch her closely, because the outcome was in doubt, but eventually she got her legs under her and pulled herself all the way up to standing, completely unassisted! Elena was so excited by the achievement that she started giggling and forgot entirely why she had done this--she didn't want Jenny to pick her up any more.

Jenny had been working on getting Elena to pull up to standing, but this was her first successful solo attempt. Even though she still doesn't crawl, this is a sign that she'll be cruising (the technical term for supported walking) soon enough. It's also a signal that we need to lower her crib mattress. After she wakes up happy, Jenny usually finds her sitting and clapping in her crib, but with this newfound ability, she'll probably try to make it out.

On an unrelated note, I have started a week of birthday gifts for Jenny. Yesterday, I had homemade chocolate and caramel candies ready for her upon their return from Houston. I have a specific memory of someone giving me homemade caramels before, but I can't remember quite who. Was it one of my sisters? Perhaps a reader will set my memory straight.

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Jenny and Elena left today for Houston. They went to visit Carrie, Matt, and Danny, and meet baby Kaylee for the first time. This may be the only time that Elena gets to see baby Kaylee for the forseeable, and while Jenny is sad about that, she's very happy for Matt and Carrie to have exciting things going on in their lives.

Of course, I miss them very much. I'll just have to do my best to keep myself busy for the next few days. Also, Jenny's birthday is next week. With her out of the house, I have the chance to prepare. I'm not sure if I'll be able to carry out all my plans, but I'll at least be able to go shopping without worrying that I'm missing valuable family time. I've already discussed this with Jenny, so I feel all right about disclosing it on the blog: I'm going to attempt to buy some clothes for her. Don't worry, she gave me a very specific thing to look for, and I'll keep the receipts.

Now on to the part I know you've been waiting for--here are some fresh-from-the-camera pictures of Elena. I think she gets cuter every day.

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While Jenny was helping a friend prepare for her wedding reception this afternoon, Elena and I spent some good daddy-daugther time at home. I fed her some pears and rice cereal, followed by a dessert of freshly-mashed banana. Before and after, she had a lot of fun scooting around the living room, playing with whatever fell into her hands. I thought a little bit about how fast she's growing. Recently Jenny has told me about how they've been doing standing up practice.

Yesterday evening we bought a new car seat, because Elena has just about grown out of her baby bucket-style seat. The new seat is in Jenny's trunk, waiting for me to install it. We chose a very girly pink; Jenny decided that she didn't want a neutral color for this piece of baby gear. I remember that almost exactly one year ago we started our first real shopping for baby gear. Before then, we had focused on maternity clothing, but I specifically recall listening to the Texas-Oklahoma game as we drove from one consignment shop to the next. We got our first ideas about strollers and cribs that day. And Texas came from behind to win.

Plenty of people at the reception were admiring Elena; we told them that today was her eight month birthday, and she thought that the festivities were for her. We didn't take a camera, so I'm sorry to report that I don't have a picture of Elena with the bride.

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