baby log.

In case you were worried about Trip’s thing with brooms,

he’s over it now.

Ah, vacuum.

Quick Trip metrics update:

• 28.5 inches (or 4.83896844 × 10^-12 AU) long, though it’s really tall these days. He spends most of his time upright.
• 19lbs., 4oz. (or 4.39014798 × 10^-30 solar masses)

New pictures and movies are up over at his site, including proof that he sleeps:

(Ever notice how the cow always seems to steal the shot?)

Lots of link-fixing and general updates over at Trip’s site.

I would be remiss in not pointing out that Trip’s fourth tooth has come in (with two more on the way). I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention that the holiday outfits have begun to appear. So cute!

Things Trip called Mama today:

• His mother.
• The sink.
• The guest bedroom.
• His mother, again.
• The giraffe that plays music.
• His grandmother, over the phone.
• The phone.
• Running water.
• His mother, for five hours straight.
• His father, once.

I’m going to close up the Daily Photo site. The daily format has its strengths (see Jim Brandenburg’s Chased By The Light for the idea in print, and Dean Allen’s Daily Oliver for a great online version), but it takes a lot of time and effort. The textpattern engine made it possible to put the site together quickly, but there are a lot of steps to process each picture. Each batch of photos took several hours every month — hours I could be taking more pictures!

I need something easier than that. That’s why I switched to a Mac — if I’m going to run UNIX, I may as well have it tightly-coupled with the hardware I get instead of spending days trying to get Linux working on a laptop. I’d much rather play with my son than play with an OS.

So, since the Daily Photo isn’t delivering what I want, I’m taking it down. Sorry.

I’m trying out the gallery software for solving the whole picture issue. Again, there are good things about it, and some things I don’t like one bit. So, the jury’s still out on it.

(You can take a peek at it if you’re interested. New Trip pictures!)

I suspect that when this is all said and done I will go and handroll something to create static pages on my home server and just call it done. Unless there’s a package that can automatically:

• pull the photos off the CF card,
• back them up my home server,
• copy them into a folder for editing,
• display them on the web,
• (rotating as appropriate),
• (and display EXIM data about the picture),
• allow some comments or captioning,
• not run me over my webhost’s limit,
• offer a RSS / Atom feed for updates,

and all while displaying the pictures in my own picky, idiosyncratic style.

Perhaps I ask too much. Any suggestions?

Trip: Please. Go. To. Sleep.

Trip’s new favorite games:

• Flying!
• Spitting up!
• Bonus game: Spitting up in daddy’s mouth!
• Telling jokes to himself in his crib, alone.
• Laughing at his own jokes in his crib.
• Tummy furbutzes.
• Feeling with daddy’s beard.
• Playing with mommy’s hair.
• Kicking daddy in the groin! (another old favorite.)

In addition to not sleeping, Trip rolled himself over in his crib today. Huzzah!

Now go back to sleep, kiddo. I need an afternoon nap, too.

Trip is now 2.69E-30 solar masses and 3.9E-12 AU! He’s getting big!

My son, the celestial object.

Trip’s favorite games, in no particular order:

• Up and Down
• Punch daddy in the nose.
• Bat at the cow.
• Coo at the koala.
• Play on the changing table.
• Oooooo.
• Pee on daddy. (An old favorite.)
• Kick mommy. (An even older one.)
• The Istanbul (Not Constantinople) Waltz
• Bathtime!

Today is a day of firsts.

• First time Trip went 9 hours between feedings
• First time Trip slept for more than 8 hours
• First time the whole family laughed together (prompted by Merrystar putting a pretzel rod in her mouth, of all things)
• First time Trip sat up (from a partially reclined position)

Introducing: brett’s daily photo.

Every day, this page displays a new picture from my life. Frequent subjects are: my son, Trip; my wife, Merrystar; my son, Trip; the occasional landscape; and my son, Trip. Had I pets, you better believe I’d take pictures of them, too. (With Trip.)

I hope you enjoy it.

(RSS and Atom feeds available on the last updated page, too.)

At six weeks, Trip is now 23 1/2 inches (or 3.99E-12 AU) long, and really, really cute.

New Flotsam: victory!, wherein I teach Trip his first four-letter word.

Baby Status: Grey-blue eyes, for now. Sleeping, but not for long.

Mom Status: Green-grey eyes, for now. Sleeping through the next feeding.

Dad Status: Brown eyes, no change expected. Decidedly not sleeping.

I have been asked by one of Merrystar’s coworkers to use real units when describing my son.

What’s a real unit, you may ask?

Well, my son Trip was 3.4E-12 AU and 1.54E-30 solar masses when born. And his birthdate was 2453496.3131944444 JDN, or 1115321460 in Unix time (), whichever floats your boat.

Of course, under the old Julian calendar, Trip’s birthday is April 22, 2005, which means that he was actually early, instead of being late, but then his nickname would make less sense.

Have I mentioned that I love astronomer humor? It’s probably a good thing that I married one.

Long overdue, but I finally had some time this weekend to pick out some of my favorite photos of my family.

In case anyone was wondering, Trip is usually quite good:

… but he’s not always an angel:

We’re still trying to figure out if his eyes are brown or grey:

And of course, we’re all falling in love with him:

More pictures in the log.

Baby Status: at home, sleeping in the cradle his Popi made him.

Mom Status: at home, sleeping.

Dad Status: finally posting some pictures.

Delivery room, around 8 pm Thursday:

Post-delivery room, around 11 pm Thursday:

Coming home on Saturday:

Changed for naptime on Saturday:

At home now from hospital. Everyone sleeping. Even me:

I can’t believe how tired I am, and I didn’t do any work!

Thank you to everyone who’s written so far - I’m still learning how to type with a baby in one arm, but I’ve read all your emails and am completely overwhelmed and touched. Thank you!

And a big thank you to Ryan, who kept this site updated while I was in the hospital. I owe you big!

Welcome to the world, Trip Peters. Born 19:31 EDT. 5/5/05 2453496.3131944444 JDN, 7lbs 13oz. 20.25” 3.4E-12 AU and 1.54E-30 solar masses.

Status: Sleeping.

As of 2:10pm DC time, Merrystar is still in labor. They started inducing at 10am and her contractions are about 2 minutes apart. Merrystar is doing well and Brett seems coherent. More to follow…

Baby Status: As of 6:15am DC time, contractions were 5 minutes apart. They head to the hospital…

Baby Status: going to hospital!

Baby Status: Real Soon Now!

(We are scheduled for tomorrow AM, if it doesn’t happen tonight. Huzzah!)

Baby Status: Expected delivery date is TOMORROW, May 5th.

Baby Status: stubborn or shy, can’t tell yet. (I suspect the former.)

Baby Status: grounded 1 year for every additional day he stays in the womb.

(Plus is currently grounded 2 years. And counting.)

Baby Status: cozy, no signs of leaving.

Baby Status: thinking about it.

Baby status: NOT AN EARLY BIRD.

Baby status: Not Yet.

Baby status: ASLEEP and STUBBORN. (Still PENDING.)

Now on the front page: baby status.

(Baby status is currently PENDING.)

I learned my lesson from last time and accompanied Merrystar to the doctor today so as not to miss anything else. And aside from the poking and prodding of my wife (which I’ll get used to, really), I got to hear the coolest sound ever: the wooshing of my baby’s heartbeat.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh.

Wow. This is so cool.

Merrystar went to the doctor today and brought back the first picture of our child. She saw the heartbeat blinking. I’m so excited!

This is at 7 weeks, 5 days - due on May 1.

We call him “Plus” because Merrystar’s dad started calling her “Merrystar Plus” and the name stuck.