Like to be naked?

Of all thing strange things I’ve witnessed from my children so far, Annabelle’s fondness for her birthday suit has been by far the most baffling. This has only happened lately, I think since we started to really “try” to toilet train her.

When we come home from a trip to the store, Annabelle makes sure to venture out of sight just long enough to remove her clothes, and her diaper. The upside of all this nudity is that it does help us to remind her to go to the toilet more often.

In the mornings, she still wakes up earlier than we do. However, now after she peeks into our room in the morning, she will sneak off to her room again, and remove all excess clothing, and arrive again in our bedroom…sans diaper. Just want I want to see first thing in the morning.

Well, at least she’s usually smiling about all this nakedness.  I just hope this is one phase that ends soon.

I don’t know why I never did it before, but I’ve finally gotten a new web site up for the main web site. So, if you point your web browser to:

www.casademora.com

You will be greeted with a brand-spankin’ new home page. It’s not a whole lot, and I’ll probably be adding to it over time, but hey, it’s a start. I plan on using iWeb for this home page, just because it’s easy, and I’ve got another site for my personal projects now.

I welcome your comments on the new home page!

I was having a conversation with someone today, and a mysterious thought occured to me: My generation is currently living a social transformation very similar to the one that happened back in the early 20th century.

The 1900’s in America and the World were just starting to industrialize. But, modern society as we know it today didn’t happen until there was wide spread use of automobiles. Indeed, many historians will go on and on about the days before cars (the horse and buggy days) and the days with cars (urban sprawl days, present day). They will mention the huge societal transformation from quiet rural towns and small communities to huge megalopolis’s.

The people born in the late 1890s saw the whole world change in their lifetimes. They saw cars evolve from their very beginnings, to the affordability of the Ford model-T to the luxury liners. They also witnessed their way of life change. No longer was it fashionable to walk to the local store to get your groceries. If you had a car, you were high class. Hence the drive-in movie phenomenon of the 1950’s. In all, it was a huge shift.

Fast forward to the end of the 20th century, and cars are an all too common family item. But, a couple of new revolutionary devices made their ways to the mainstream culture due perhaps to their sheer utility. The Internet and Cell phones have become the two catalysts of our generation.

While it was born in the middle of the century, the Internet has grown into the vital tool for everyday communication and entertainment. In fact, the Internet is a vital component of many businesses. It is also a mainstay in or household. When we first moved in, the cable guy happened to be outside hooking things up. He said that he could have TV up by the end of the day. I quickly thanked him, but asked if we could have the Internet turned on instead. I have not subscribed to cable TV since then. Not a day goes by that I don’t use the Internet. These days, if it’s not on the Internet, I just don’t need it. All the information I need to get along with my daily activities is provided somewhere online. Electronics, check. Money, check. Clothes, check. Food, check. Books, check. Education, check. Friends, check. News, check. Everything is there. This is a huge shift from my own childhood when computers were luxury toys that were expensive and slow. My how fast times change.

The days before cell phones were difficult. If we were in trouble in the middle of an interstate highway between major cities, we were left to the mercy of the passersby to stop and lend a hand. If we didn’t make carefully laid out instructions to the late night rendezvous, we would never meet. Now, the electronic leash keeps us in touch with our friends, or sends us messages when we have events due on our online calendars. Sometimes, we even talk on our cell phones. Indeed the days before cell phones were nasty. I find it hard to believe that kids nowadays may grow up without ever knowing what a landline is, just as I never grew up with a rotary dial in any house but my grandmother’s.

All this makes me wonder: is this sort of social transformation on some sort of cycle? If so, what is it? At first glance, it seems that it’s comes about once a century. If that is the case, I can only wonder what awaits my children’s children when they grow up. What sort of major change in lifestyle will occur that I can’t even imagine?

Yesterday, Eliana and her friends stopped by for a their weekly visit. We decided to take some pictures, finally. After looking at the pictures of Eliana, I again started to notice that she has grown so much over the last few months, it’s just astonishing. Check out some of the new pictures I’ve finally been able to capture over the last couple of days on my account at flickr.com

Tonight we set in motion the initial step in a series of events that we hope will benefit the future of our first born daughter for the rest of her life. Eliana’s mother and I have growing concerns regarding her future health and well-being. We do not want her to follow the same patterns we followed as children. Personally, I want to let her be her own person, but she has to enable that herself.

As we were trying to think about ways for Eliana to get more exercise on a daily basis, I thought about one of the things that I wanted to do as a kid: play soccer in a league. Of course I was deprived of this opportunity due to the circumstances of our lives, but Eliana doesn’t have to barriers. She is able to stand on my (our) shoulders even now and benefit.

While I hope that she takes to soccer like a fish to water (or a kid to a candy store), I sincerely hope she just has fun. This little conspiracy, experiment or whatever you want to call it, has it’s roots in encouraging exercise for Eliana, but I still hope that she develops a love for the game of soccer, and learns to have fun while exercising.

This also gives me an opportunity to watch her perform at something that neither her mom nor I will teach her. However, I won’t be far away, because she will need me at the most unpredictable times. I will be there for every game, and as many practices as possible. I want to be there when she scores a goal. I want to be there when she passes the ball to her teammate. I want to be there for all the other fun times she will have, because as she will be having fun, I will be having fun watching her.

…Of diaper days, that is.

I took a look back at the blog archives and noticed that my first post about Annabelle’s toilet transition time started way back last September. That means that we’ve been waiting almost a year for her to figure out that toilets are easier for us to deal with than her diaper. But over the last week, she’s made some major steps forward on the road to pre-K toddler.

Last weekend, we stayed home for most of the time, so we let her run around the house without her diaper. She likes to do this, and this has had some messy consequences as well. However, this time around, we asked her a little more frequently if she had to go to the bathroom. We even took her, and placed her on the toilet, and waited with her. She started out by going once on the toilet per day. We tried to give her as much praise as possible. We wanted to make sure her learning experience was as stress free as possible.

Over the last few days, the reports are that she has gone to the toilet more and more. Today, she even made it to the next level. (You know which level that is.) We are hoping that the end of her diaper days are near, and the next level of childhood growth will soon be upon us…

Every so often, my big life To Do List makes an appearance on this blog. It’s always a good idea to revisit your life lists to make sure that you are gaining any ground, or to see what is really important to you. Things that were important to get done one or two years ago may not seem so high in priority now.

Looking at my 4 year old list from 2004, I notice that some things on here had no chance of being done. Traveling to other countries wasn’t going to happen due to the demands of having a family.

Learning is the core of my being, and it shows in my old list. However, I think I never learned how to learn without instruction. Thus, I never followed through. I still would like to learn the chinese language. I still want to learn the philosophy and beauty of kung fu. I want to experience the joy of playing cello again. I want to feel the rush of being in a real band as a smokin bassist.

Somethings that were never on the list are now a big priority in my life. I have committed myself to being a better software engineer. I will also find time in my life to volunteer at the lower opportunity schools as one of the best impacts Intel has had on me.

Learning cello. That item is there in reference to my childhood as the nerd with a cello. Growing up, I don’t think I appreciated what I had. Now that it isn’t there in my daily life, I miss some part of it. I also want to pass that along to my kids to experience the joys and challenges of learning oneself through music.

In all, I haven’t made the progress I had hoped on my list, but then again, I’ve also done some worthwhile things that weren’t on the list. Now, it’s time to redouble my efforts somehow, and to prioritize what’s important to me, and to be able to leave with no regrets.

Recently, a couple of friends of mine began to grow their families one baby at a time. All of them are experiencing the things we last encountered two or three years ago. I’m not sure if it’s the drum beat of daily life, or just that we have all grown to become accustomed to each other, but it’s been a while since I thought of my girls as the little babies they once were. And, a recent video of a friend with his newborn had me living through my own first day experiences with Eliana.

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about my kids, and how to make sure their lives will be pleasant and rewarding. Having a child, someone who will rely on me for so many things, whose lives I will revolve around for the rest of my own life, was a very difficult concept for me to grasp those few years ago. It’s not that I couldn’t handle the responsibility, actually, I think I took to the role quite well. My wife can attest to that. But, for nearly a year, something in the back of my mind was watching my go through the motions of being a first time Dad. Perhaps it was my own youth, the rapid change from just a married guy to a married guy with a child. Or the fact that someone else’s life was actually depending on me; that was something that had never happened to be prior to my first daughter’s birth.

Indeed, I have thought a little about those days recently, mostly in that the growth of our children make it easier for us adults to measure the passage of time. When I look at, and talk with Eliana these days, I can’t help but marvel at her. Her mannerisms, her wit, her charm, everything that has developed before my very eyes over the last 4 years. Annabelle is growing just as fast. Some days, I think I am literally watching her grow as from one day to the next, she seems to have sprouted longer legs. I know now what it must have been like for my parents to see us grow up so quickly, from diapers to college in the blink of an eye.

Kids, they grow so fast, yet, we also should realize that we grow just as fast, with them. We are not young forever. We need to capture the moments with our kids at every opportunity. Daily life can turn into a daily grind, and as the children learn to assert their individuality, some days will be more difficult than others. Rest assured, that even on those days, I try to remember that those moments are what makes life worth living. Those are the experiences we will all remember as we all travel through this world, with our families as our guides and companions.

I can’t believe it’s been a whole month since I’ve taken any pictures…of anything! No pictures of the girls, none of me, random stuff…nothing. I only realized this when I opened my photo library and noticed that the month of June was not even there. As in, there were no entries, so it didn’t show up.

As I’ve grown to appreciate the art of photography over the last few years, I’ve tried my best to learn the techniques and try to take better pictures. One some occasions, I’ve succeeded: I’ve got several great pictures of the girls. On another level, I can’t just stop there either. I need to keep practicing, keep improving. I often find it difficult to find good subjects to take pictures of, or find inspiration from. I’m sure my excuse doesn’t fly just because I find no beauty in the desert or the searing summer heat.

Having taken a workshop last year, I realized that it isn’t my surroundings that make for great photography, it’s how I see and interpret them. I just haven’t made effort to see the beauty here. But, on the other hand, I have been here for quite a long time, and at some point, its like staring a a pot of water: it just won’t boil.

The other day, I met the kids at the pool after work, as had been the norm lately. It was a nice 105 or so, and the pool felt great. I got in the water more than normal and played with the kids to loosen up after work.

I’m trying to teach Annabelle to relax in the pool. As it is now, she is very scared of going under the water. It’s a perfectly natural response, however, I would like her to at least be able to float on her own. I try holding her up in a swimming position, I try floating her on her back, with her head on my shoulder. Nothing seems to work. So, I just tried to have a little fun with her. So I put her on my back, and started to take her around the big pool. She enjoys this, as she has control over her position in the water to some extent, and she has something solid to hold onto: me.

As we were walking over to meet her mom, she slid off my back a little, and was about to fall into the water. I caught her (as I reminded her, that I would catch her), and put her back where she was on top of me. She then patted me on the head, and said “Thank You, Horsie”. I quickly retorted “I’m not your horsie”. I knew she was playing, as we usually horse around at home. It was one of those times where the baby voice and the situation made it for one of those cute moments to remember.