La Familia Brophy

I went to an IAP* class today on how to chop vegetables. (I had to bring a big knife to work with me, I was glad it didn’t fall out of my bag on the commuter rail) I didn’t get to stay of the whole class but there but I learned how to hold the knife and the veggies properly, and I now feel confident making carrot matchsticks or julienne-ing peppers. Lisa used the veggies I chopped in our dinner tonight (cauliflower paprikash, yum). Our instructor has a website, simmerstock.com, that is worth a visit. It is basically a food oriented blog. It’s got a little too much meat for me, but maybe you don’t mind that.

* Independant Acivities Period. During January MIT has a wide assortment of non-credit classes offerred by members of the MIT community. I did some about Stellar and and on on Adobe Illustrator. There are cooking classes, physics lectures, karate demonstrations, all sorts of stuff. It’s fun.

Lately when I go in to Nathan’s room to pick him up he is up on his elbows (view image) looking around like he’s thinking “Where ARE they already?” Somehow he looks very grown up when he does that. Before you know it he’ll climb out of the crib and walk into our room to say “Yo! I’m hungry over here!”

Our new friends Julie and Robbie O’Brian are in Colombia now getting to know their son Liam. Congratulations!! We’re so excited for them. Liam was just born when we were there. Lisa is sure she saw him there when we toured Chiquitines.

We went to watch a video, Secretary, with my Dad tonight. He made some yummy bean stew for us, which we ate with corn chips, jalapeno buns, sour cream and cilantro. None of us loved the movie. It didn’t make my top ten, but it it was interesting. Lisa’s threatning to check my entry tonight for typos.

It’s been so chilly Nathan no longer minds wearing a hat (view image).

I started taking a class at Simmons today called “The Organization of Knowledge,” a title I love. I was sad that everyone at Simmons just calls the class “cataloging” which doesn’t have nearly the same omniscient aura. Though the class is about about cataloging books in Libraries, I think I’ll get a foundational knowledge of metadata. I am taking it as part of my new program to improve the way large data rich websites are designed. I think cataloging is at the base of that mission, so I am pretty pleased with the course so far. At the very least I’ll learn to get my books, CDs and DVDs all neatly organized and cataloged, which should please the obsessive side of my personality.

We watched The Kid Stays in the Picture this weekend. It just barely made it onto the top ten, bumping Monsoon Wedding. I loved the effects, they were so good I forgot I was watching moving photos at times and just got into the story, at other times I was struck by how good they looked. This movie scored with me just for the graphics.

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Today we saw Nathan roll over for the first time!! On Saturday he rolled over in his crib but we missed it. Today he has done it over and over again. It was so nice that it was a holiday so Ben and I got to watch him together and cheer him on. Of course this continues his rather advanced development of gross motor skills. We are so proud of this budding genius.

In listening to the news on Iraq, in particular the US governments comments on the weapons inspections there, I’ve noticed this strange logic.

If the inspectors don’t find anything it means Iraq is not cooperating and an invasion is justified.

If the inspectors do find something it means Iraq is not cooperating and an invasion is justified.

So basically, they plan to invade no matter what. I wonder why I never hear the media questioning this logic?

(The other thing that has me hot under the collar is how they’re cutting taxes and then sayng “oops, there is no money left for schools” as if the two are not connected. Politicians try to compare their budget to family finances. But what kind of family decides to cut their own income when they don’t have enough money for their childrens education? )

I have all these opinions, but other than voting and sending the ocassional email to my reps, what do I do about? Not much, I’m embarassed to say. My mom is out protesting the war in Iraq right now, but I’m not! I’ve always found protests deadly boring and I hate crowds. But maybe I should give it another try. I might go to one of the protests in Cambridge this Sunday. But does it really matter? Is anyone going to be surprised that people in Cambridge oppose the war? It’s so cold out there
(view image)! If I go, and I do hope to, I’ll report back here about it.

Today Nathan is 4 months old. We have now known him for just over half of his life. It is amazing how much he has changed in the two months we have been together as a family. Back on November 13th he seemed like a newborn. He was kind of scrawny still and kept his fists tightly closed. His head was pretty wobbly. He was just beginning to smile. He mostly just laid there.

Nowadays he is so big. He has gained over five pounds in this time. He sits up with support. He puts toys in his mouth. He knows where his hands are and is discovering that he has feet too. His head is steady and he lifts it quite high when on his stomach. He smiles and laughs all the time. One of his (and our) favorite activities is looking in the mirror at each other. He just looks at us and gets a big smile. Now he gets a smile just walking in the bathroom as we approach the mirror!

Nathan recognizes us when he sees us. He even recogizes our voices sometimes. Sometimes it is possible to soothe him with just our voices but usually he likes a little cuddling.

How did we get the best baby in the world? We sure are lucky to know this sweet little boy with the big brown eyes.

Here is a silly photoshoot we did tonight. Mostly it was to get a shot at the cute booties that a former co-worker of Ben’s gave him. It was a wild and crazy time though. (view image).

This is the number one question people ask me (ok, maybe second to “How’s Nathan?”). I think it’s the new parent equivalent of “Some weather having having, huh?” So here’s my detailed, up to date response. We get more sleep than most peole think we might, it’s not nearly as bad as it could be. For nearly a month Nathan slept 10 hours a night without interuption. But for over a week he has woken up every single night at around 2 a.m. He’s teething, which could explain the wakes ups. Sometimes he wakes up 2 or 3 times in a night. It’s very easy to get him back to sleep, one of us just pats him on the back a few times and says “It’s OK, Nathan.” and he goes back to sleep (view image). Sometimes he’ll go back to sleep on his own before we get there. Last night it was Lisa’s turn to help him stay asleep, tonight it will be my duty. It’s not bad, but not sleeping through the night is having an effect on my consciousness. I am a little groggier, I need a bit more coffee. I wouldn’t say I’m grumpy, but I am feeling more “no nonsense.”

I don’t talk about work much outside of the office. When I talk about it to anyone that’s not a colleague, common responses include blank expressions and glancing around the room in search of escape routes. But I’ve been very busy at work since we returned from Colombia with Nathan. I have talk about it, and the beauty of this asynchronous medium is that you can just skim or stop reading altogether, and I’ll never know. I’ll just assume I have your rapt attention.
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