A blog about a kid. I like her.

Sunday, December 31, 2006

The Best and Worst So Far

The Best:
(1) I seem to be a lot more popular when I'm carrying a cute baby girl around. I wish I had been able to get one in high school.

(2) Aletheia is a compulsive smiler, and everyone smiles back. Having her around is like having an industrial strength joy generator set to 11 all the time.

(3) When she's waking up from a nap, and I go get her, and she gives me a record-breaking wide smile. That's incredible.

The Worst:
(1) Post-solid-food poopy diapers. I literally can't change them without retching. How can someone so small and cute make such horrific stenches?

(2) I know every dad gets this, and I know it's just a silly little thing that people say trying to be funny, but for crying out loud, the next time one of you people tells me it's sure a good thing that the baby looks like her mother, I am seriously going to snap and kill something with my bare hands. You've been warned. I'll get a good lawyer and plead temporary insanity. Stay out of my path. Ha ha ha, I'm ugly. Ha ha ha. Shut up.

(3) "She'll be in second grade before she knows how to spell her name!"
"She's going to have to pick a nickname when she gets to school, you know."

Okay, this is a good time to link again to the Aletheia Name FAQ.

Next: Look, I run into dozens of kreativvvleigh spelled baby names all the time. Having one unusual name transliterated properly from the Greek can't be any more difficult than being Mikayla in a kindergarten class with a Michaela, Mykala, and Michayla. Right across the room will be Madisen and Maddisyn, as well as Katelyn, Kaitlin, and Caitlin. Yes, the name is rare, but get over it. We're living in a era of all-out onomastic anarchy, and "Aletheia" is barely going to register on the weird-o-meter.

Finally: what are we really talking about here? Eight letters. Two are repeats. It's not like your kid was spelling his name in kindergarten because he had learned to sound out the word phonetically. Nope. You just chanted J-o-n-a-t-h-a-n, J-o-n-a-t-h-a-n over and over until he memorized it. Jonathan, I might point out, is eight letters long, just like Aletheia, and only one syllable shorter. But did anyone tell you he'd have to be a super-genius to figure his own name out? Nope. They just said, "What a nice name!" You just think Aletheia is hard because you've never seen it before. She'll be writing it before she turns five. Not because she's got a brain the size of the proposed lunar base, but because it's not that difficult. But for the record, she does have a brain the size of a lunar base. It's so massive that it has a detectable gravitational field. When small items in the house disappear, they are usually in her hat or lodged in her ear. Five pets have gone missing in this neighborhood since we bought our house.

If you are having trouble remembering how to spell it, you might be helped by the Aletheia song that we sing to the baby:

My name is Aletheia, A-l-e-t-h-e-i-a!
My name is Aletheia, A-l-e-t-h-e-i-a!

I'm going to go to Harvard University
and be the president of the whole world.
I'll find a cure for cancer in my labratory.
Cause I'm the strongest, smartest, prettiest girl in the world.

My name is Aletheia, A-l-e-t-h-e-i-a!
My name is Aletheia, A-l-e-t-h-e-i-a!

Okay, rant over. That should hold me until her first birthday. I promise I'm nice in person. But watch yourself.

Uncle Kasey Montage

20061219 Aletheia 012 APOD

Renewing the relationship

20061219 Aletheia 015 APOD

Apparently some kind of allergic reaction

20061219 Aletheia 016 APOD

Wide-eyed

20061219 Aletheia 020 APOD

I really have no idea what this expression means.

All these pictures were taken on 12/19/06, when Allie was 5 Months, 16 Days old.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Under the Tree


And, yeah, all those presents are for her.

Merry First Christmas, kiddo!

5 Months, 25 Days

Aletheia with her Granddaddy


Aletheia has been having a great time this week with her grandparents. Just having family who care about her and love being with her is a great Christmas gift!

5 Months, 22 Days

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Aletheia and "Uncle Harold"


Uncle Harold, like a lot of Aletheia's aunts and uncles and cousins, isn't really related by DNA, but is an old, good friend who might as well be a family member. He's also the computer-savvy neighbor who prints off all of these pictures for Aletheia's great-grandparents. So here's a big thanks to Harold for all his help!

5 Months, 15 Days

Friday, December 22, 2006

Adorable


Here she is in San Antonio on her Memaw and Pawpaw's couch, with her old friend the bear. We had about four and a half days with the great-grandparents, and Aletheia definitely wasn't hurting for attention. Meanwhile, a new milestone: she's now very good at sitting up and balancing all by herself. Every day is a new adventure.

5 Months, 19 Days

With Her Memaw


Aletheia back with her great-grandmother.

5 Months, 19 Days

Back With Her Pawpaw


Aletheia with her great-grandfather.

5 Months, 19 Days

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Standing Tall


I put Aletheia on my shoulders for a little while today and took her outside. She loved it. Something about being up above everyone else made her laugh like crazy. Especially when she was taller than her mommy (which, to be honest, doesn't take much). She looked down at mommy and laughed and laughed and laughed. The neighbors heard it and looked to see what was going on. Must've been a banner day for the kid.

Also, I need a haircut.

Tomorrow we go on vacation for about a week and a half, and then we go back to Cuidad Juarez, Mexico to see our friends there. I'll post updates as we can, but internet access is going to be iffy. Keep checking back and I may do a bunch all at once to catch up.

5 Months, 13 Days

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Old Friend in a New House


Aletheia is adjusting to the new place. Here she is in the crib with her old friend, the bear. You can see two of the four walls of her room here--each of the four is a different color. Getting the corners right took a long, long time.

5 Months, 11 Days

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Peek-a-boo!


Aletheia through the bars of her crib, in her new room.

5 Months, 9 Days

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Moving Day


Sorry again for the recent lack of updates. Buying a house and getting ready to move has had us working overtime. But we're moved in now and hopefully my new DSL connection will be up and running today (good-bye dial-up!) so we can get back to regular posting. Moving has been a pain, but we were very careful to label all our boxes and not leave anything important behind.

5 Months, 8 Days

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Learning Her Numbers


5 Months, 4 Days

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Aletheia With Papa Doug


Doug is one of Allie's local substitute grandparents.

4 Months, 28 Days

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Babies Are Flexible


5 Months Old

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Knit Hat


Been a busy couple of days. Aletheia caught a cold, and her mom and I are trying to get the interior of our new house repainted before we order new carpet to replace the green shag carpet, which needs to happen before we move in, which needs to happen before we go on vacation on the 17th. Oh, and I'm performing a wedding this weekend and trying to prepare for my next doctoral class in January. So, we missed two updates. Send us a SASE for your money-back refund.

Anyway, here Aletheia is a couple of days ago with her Nana Freda from church, who bought her the swell knot cap. I'm not sure how to characterize the expression on her face. Wry?

Let's look it up.

–adjective, wri·er, wri·est.
produced by a distortion or lopsidedness of the facial features: a wry grin.

Yeah, that'll work. But who knew you could make it a superlative. Wriest? Wriest? I don't think I've heard that in my whole life.

4 Months, 28 Days

About Me

My photo
I'm a guy with a small daughter and a big bookcase. You can reach me at gate42b(AT)yahoo(DOT)com

We have changed

diapers since July 19, 2006