One year old! One year old!

Maria had her first birthday Thursday. Sue and I can hardly believe it's been a year already. To celebrate, we gave her a cupcake with one candle. She was a little confused by the cupcake as we normally give her food in small pieces and not one larger, whole object.

Camera geek note: Pictures taken with 50mm f1.4 lens that arrived Thursday, just in time for her birthday pictures.

Maria closeups

Technical details:
Canon 20D with 100mm macro lens.

For the curious - my Pentax was stolen about several weeks ago, and I recently bought this camera as a replacement.

Valentine's Day bib

Here's Maria with a Valentine's Day bib.

Maria feeds herself with a spoon

The other day Maria was feeding herself with a spoon!

Fine print: To make this an entirely accurate statement, the following definitions have been used

• "feeding" - food went from the bowl to a location on, around or near her face. Furthermore that location was largely, but not exclusively, her mouth.
• "herself" - her hand was on the spoon from when it left the bowl to her mouth. Dad may have assisted a bit with initial spoon movements and/or maneuvered the bowl so as to be contacted appropriately by the spoon.

Photograph of the aftermath:

(Unfortunately, she's sick and not smiling)

Maria in the mirror

So cute she warps time and space

Maria is so cute, she warps time and space around her. Well, maybe not time so much. But she definitely warps space, as shown here.

Technical note: I was having fun adjusting the zoom on the camera during the exposure.

Letter from Internal Blogging Office

I recently received the following communication:

Dear Sir,
The Internal Blogging Office has noted that you maintain a blog, and are a parent of a young child. We would like to draw your attention to blogging regulation 34(d), which states that updated pictures of said child should be posted on a timely basis. There are some concerns that it has been a while since such a picture has appeared on your blog. We trust this is merely an oversight from the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Your prompt attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Miranda P. Wallacespooner
Internal Blogging Office
Cute Child Pictures Division

The letter was a bit of a surprise - I didn't even know there *was* an Internal Blogging Office. Anyway, if it's anything like the IRS it would be best not to mess with them. Here's a couple of pictures that should satisfy the requirements.

New Van Air Freshener

The van started to develop a little smell, so we got a new air freshener.

I'm not sure how we'll hang it from the dash.

Notes on intelligence

Links to some articles, so I can find them later.

How to be a genius

The secret to raising smart kids

Short answer: Effort, not innate talent, is the key.

Hiking in the redwoods

We visited a redwood forest during a trip to California this weekend.

This was a good hike for Maria. Her position in the baby carrier means Sue's back is the only scenery looking forward, and the straps limit the side view somewhat. If she wants a clear view she has to look up. Fortunately for her, much of the scenery is 'up' in a redwood forest.

One of the potential dangers of all the scenery being 'up', is that one might not look forward enough. A scenario depicting this peril is modeled below.

California - even the plants are in rehab

California - home of the stars - many of them in rehab. Even the plants there are getting in on the act.

Sunset with vibrant colors

On Tuesday night, there was a gorgeous sunset with plenty of rich, vibrant colors. Pictures are available at my Flickr photo stream. There's also some of Sue and Maria using the sunset as a background.

A small taste:

Thoughtful Marinas

It was nice of the marina in Sutton's Bay to consider the needs of sleeping babies.

In which we travel to Michigan and get lost in the desert

Sue, Maria, and I were on vacation in Michigan last week. We went for a hike and promptly found ourselves lost in the desert.

Golf pants for babies?

At least I think they look like golf pants

And some bonus pictures, just because I have a camera, and she's so cute.

Note the two bottom teeth. We are eagerly awaiting more (poor Maria's been have teething pain on the top ones for quite some time).

Look at that upper body strength!

Rapture or not?

I read the first book in the Left Behind series a while back, just to see what all the fuss was about. It struck me as very similar to the DaVinci Code. (Not in terms of plot details, but in terms of writing style, writing quality and the ruckus surrounding them. And it greatly amuses me to lump these two books together.)

So the Left Behind series focuses on the rapture. Here's a couple of posts analyzing the support for the rapture in the Bible: Why i will not be raptured and Why i will not be raptured, part ii. (Executive summary: Not finding it.)

Walking with Maria

We finally got around to taking Maria for a walk over at Homer Lake. Sue is excited about her new ergo baby carrier. She says it works better than the other baby-carrying contraptions she's tried.

Maria fell asleep during the walk - here you can see the hood in place to support her head a little better while she sleeps.

Maria got a little warm near the end - it was getting hot outside by that time.

Flash tricks

Inspired by a post at Cheapshooter, I tried putting a (clean, unused) tissue over the flash.

Here are two pictures of Leo in a box - the top photo is with the bare flash, and the bottom photo is with the tissue diffuser.

I love peas

Maria seems to like peas.

Maria's View

I took this picture of Maria in her bouncy seat this morning.

Often parents (and others) try very hard to make babies smile and react. I wondered what that looked like from Maria's point of view. I put the camera down by her head, and this is what she sees.

And all this time I thought she was laughing with me ...

(Alternately: All this time I thought she was smiling - now I know it's actually an expression of abject terror)