Arrival

We have arrived

We have arrived. The Potentate slept pretty well considering the time zone. He woke up at 2:30 and at 5:00, but overall is handling things quite well. Joan and Roy (the folks we are staying with) have two kids and they're enjoying Jonathan. He is enjoying playing with them too. Sunday (tomorrow) we leave on a shuttle van like thing around 3:30 in the afternoon.

We're 9 hours ahead of you, just for the record. That mean that while I'm writing this E-mail at 10:00am, it is actually 1:00 in the morning. It's strange that it doesn't feel like 1:00 in the morning. It feels like 10:00. That's probably a good thing.

We may go to a botanical garden later today. I forgot my razor so I had to use Gayla's leg shaving one. Not really used to that so much so I think we're going to go buy one later. It took 10 minutes and I was continually worried about the potential danger of a razor about my neck and face. Just for the record though it is possible.

Jonathan did great on the plane for take offs and landings. He didn't really like sleeping, but he slept for around 5 hours in 2 hour chunks. Roy met us at the airport last night and brought us to his house.

Well, that's probably all for now. .

A tough little kid

I think that little Jonathan is built to handle pain. He went in for his 15 month shots today and he received 4 of them, two in each leg. He also has 3 teeth coming in and has his first ear infection.

For all that, he really doesn't act that much different. He's a little more clingy and just a touch cranky, but not so much that we really noticed. We were pretty surprised when the doctor said he had an ear infection. There may be an otoscope in our futures.

So now we get to feed him 3 ml of antiboitics each day. We're also trying to figure out how to get him to swallow the little anti-malaria tablets we bought for him. What is needed is a miniature version of what we used to get the calves/cows to swallow scours tablets. If the pill or anything else he decides isn't tasty gets hung up on his tongue, he's really good at getting it out of his mouth hasta pronto. He can eat a bite of caserole and spit out just the kernels of corn or the ham pieces while eating the rest.

I'm sure he'll be feeling better soon. We're pretty excited about him growing extra functionality so he can eat meat.

Walking to the mailbox

Gayla suggested that Jonathan and I go get the mail today. Jonathan is getting somewhat heavy so I decided that it would be better if he walked. He walked the entire way and had many adventures along the way.

Right out the back door he discovered a stick. He's a big fan of sticks so he picked it up. Then we walked a few more feet and he discovered a leaf that he had to pick up. Then after a couple more steps, he found a bigger and longer stick so he picked that up and dropped the leaf. A little while later he dropped the little stick and started swinging the bigger stick at leaves. He broke it in two, but a piece of bark kept the stick together. Then he swung the end stick around in circles and it broke off completely. So he had to pick it up. At this point we were about 1/4 of the way to the mailbox.

Once we made it to the mailbox, Jonathan decided he wanted to play on the sidewalk next to the street. I wasn't too excited about the idea since I was hoping to read the new Model T magazine that had come in the mail so I managed to persuade him to walk back to the start of the driveway. Then he discovered a black walnut with its husk still on and picked it up. Then he found another one and picked that one up too. At this point he was on top of the old irrigation canal and having a bit of trouble walking in high grass so he gave me one of the walnuts for safe keeping. He walked a bit further to an old apple tree and picked up a dessicated dried up nasty old little apple. I was hoping he wouldn't try to eat it and he didn't. I kept trying to get him to walk towards the house, but he wanted to walk towards the old fruit trees and high grass.

Eventually he got to the grape vines beside the driveway. He saw a bunch of grapes and made his "Please get me some of that" noises so I gave him a bunch of grapes after picking off the nasty ones. He promptly sat down and started eating them. This gave me a chance to read the Model T magazine I'd picked up earlier. Once he was done with his grapes, I thought he'd want to come in, but no. He wanted another bunch of grapes. After the 2nd bunch, I had pretty much finished the magazine and told him I was heading in because it was cold and while he was welcome to come with me, he could hang out outside if he wanted to. Our little walk to the mailbox had consumed 1 hour at this point.

Naturally, he headed straight for the barn. Sensible kid if I do say so myself.
I procured a jacket from the house and went back out to find him and brought a stick of cheese because I figured he might be hungry even after the grapes. He was playing with fun metal
pieces by the barn and I gave him some cheese and he ate it right up.

While he played, I checked out the carpets that were drying from the garden and picked up around the firewood stack for about 30 minutes. Then Gayla hollered "Dinner's Ready" from the back door and again I asked Jonathan if he wanted to go in and warm up and get something to eat. His response was to walk away from me, towards the barn, and play with more sticks and metal pieces. I picked him up and we went inside to eat.

All in all, an entertaining time with the kid. Funny thing is after all that, he wasn't very hungry and didn't eat all his dinner.

Here's a hat for you Dad

Now this is getting kind of fun. A few weeks ago we were eating cookies after church and I stashed my coat and hat in a corner. About 20 minutes later, Jonathan was at my feet holding up my hat. I put it on my head and then several minutes later he was at my feet again standing up and holding my coat. I think he was ready to go:)

Now at home, he will bring me my sandals from the back door where I take them off and he will put them on top of my feet. Then I'll put them on and he'll bring me another pair. It's pretty fun, but occasionally it can be difficult to find a shoe that was delivered somewhere and forgotten.

The other day I was carrying him upstairs early in the morning and he saw my hat and made quite a commotion until I held him where he could grab it. First thing he did was put it on my head.

Does anyone else know about kids in the 12-18 month age bracket that do this sort of thing? Have you figured out what their motivation is? I think its a combination of wanting to help, and wanting items to be in their proper place, but I'd love to hear about any other ideas.

Thanks,

If it ain't broke, fix it until it is!

I hadn't really considered how dangerous global warming could be.

First off there is this excellent article that clearly explains the facts about what has been observed about global warming and its causes. It contains quotes from many actual scientists refuting global warming statements typically regarded as fact by the media. It's long, but I'd encourage you to read it.

Now, the "other side" believes that we are all doomed if we don't significantly reduce our CO2 production and therefore minor trivial things like scientific fact don't really matter. What's important is to convince folks that we are dooming ourselves using whatever methods will work to persuade large numbers of people. This is working to some extent, at least until the Earth starts cooling. I'd like to see what the folks who come up with carbon credits, taxes, and other nonsense say then.

For the most part I've accepted this kind of "religious" battle as a fairly standard part of the world in which we live. Environmentalists are happy to bestow economic hardship on most anyone and ignore cherished traditions to accomplish their goals, but I've never heard of one actually wanting to mess with the stratosphere. Generally, environmental wackos at least have the sense to realize that the ecosystems of the world are complicated and tinkering with them for no good reason is a poor idea. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that a "scientist" with the Carnegie Institution’s department of global ecology would suggest the following and that this would actually be printed. Here are a few items from his NYTimes op-ed article.
....
What can be done? One idea is to counteract warming by tossing small particles into the stratosphere (above where jets fly). This strategy may sound far-fetched, but it has the potential to cool the earth within months.
....
Which is the more environmentally sensitive thing to do: let the Greenland ice sheet collapse and polar bears become extinct, or throw a little sulfate in the stratosphere? The second option is at least worth looking into.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/24/opinion/24caldiera.html?em&ex=1193371200&en=d7432eefaebd3162&ei=5087%0A

I encourage you to share this information with others. If enough people think something that's working fine is a problem, eventually they will make it a problem.

Jonathan walks

Well, its pretty much official. Jonathan walks. This isn't a kind of tottering walk from one parent's outstretched hands to the other or holding onto the cable spool in the living room and leaning over and grabbing the couch, but heading from the living room to the kitchen using "the walk" as the primary form of locomotion.

Along with walking comes the ability to see things on shelves that were previously out of sight. This is a particular problem in the barn because Jonathan really likes metal objects, such as irreplaceable CJ-2A jeep bearings or old rusty bolts. Combine this is an innate desire to put things into other things and you have an automated cleanup machine that takes things off shelves and puts them into the garbage can. The key to this is to empty your garbage cans often and to inspect them after the small one has been playing near them.

So far he hasn't tried to walk down stairs or run, but I suspect that will be coming soon...

Pick your candidate

An interesting test is available here that asks a series of questions and matches up the candidates who agree with the most issues.

Somewhat frighteningly John McCain came in the highest with 49 while Fred Thompson was a close 2nd at 47. Mike Huckabee was at 35, but he seems like someone with some pretty good ideas.

Hilary, Obama, and that other guy, Edwards were all 7. I guess they like the death penalty too.

Have fun!

Timber

Boy, so many stories, so little time the last few weeks to write about them.

Last Sunday, Jonathan learned how to play timber at Rob and Karen's house. He would stand on the top of the back of the couch and then fall and crash onto the couch seat. That was such fun. Then he would jump up and grab my thumbs and I'd lift him back up onto the back of the couch and he'd do it again. Then he learned that he could fling himself down and it was more fun.

Today he enjoyed the same game on the bed and when sitting in my lap. If you stand him up and yell Timber and then give him a little push, he happily falls over, bounces up and wants to try it again. Hope he doesn't decide to play timber by himself, but seeing as he isn't saying words very clearly at the moment, he won't be able to give himself the verbal trigger so that's good for now.

Drinking Problem

We had a bit of a rain storm the other night that dropped at least 1/2". The next day I was breaking up old pallets in an attempt to clean up the place a bit and Gayla was taking a nap. Jonathan was awake having napped earlier so I took him out with me.

A month or two before, the infamous NNU dump had a metal cart with a deck about 2 feet off the ground surrounded by a 8" railing and wheels to boot. I took it home and it works well for moving rear-ends around and also as a little play area for Jonathan. I placed him in it with a few metal parts to play with while I broke up the pallets.

After about 30 minutes or so he got a little fussy just as I was breaking up the 2nd pallet so I gave him some rocks and some more metal parts. There were a few 55 gallon barrels nearby so I showed him that he could whack them with the metal parts to make a nice noise. He really enjoyed it and that kept him quiet through the 3rd pallet. Towards the end of the 3rd pallet I heard a sucking, slurping noise and I looked over and Jonathan had grabbed the top lip of one of the barrels and by stretching as far as he could was able to drink the rain-water that had collected in the top. This caused me a bit of concern so I picked him up and said, "You know if you're thirsty, perhaps you could ask for a drink of water." I took him inside and provided him with a nice plastic glass of water and the little turkey wouldn't drink any of it. Now that he's had barrel water, he's not so interested in the boring stuff.

First Steps

The small child has taken a few steps. His favorite is the side-step while facing furniture so he can keep from falling if needed. It's pretty interesting to see him trying something new.

He's also been eating the occasional apple. He eats a piece and chews a bit and then spits out the skin, then takes another bite and so on. After a bit he's sitting on the floor surrounded by apple skin bits.

Excellent evening

My brother invited us, my wife's parents, and her sister and husband over to his place for supper and games. Supper was great with my brother doing a fair bit of improvising which resulted in a wonderful ravioli and some pizzas made, baked, and frozen in Italy then shipped to the States. After supper, we played Ticket to Ride and some Wii Sports.

Finished up the evening with the small one on my knee while I played set and Dave did piano. The Potentate really enjoyed it. He kept trying to touch the hi-hat and the snare, then he grabbed my hand and held it while I was playing. I guess a small child would like the noise and action associated with playing a drum set. Now he's crawling all about not really wanting to go to bed. Here is his attempt to add to this writing:
uh743ey44444444y3t 6cf3333333332rtf4 4444444444444vfc4v22222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222z22\
22zCRFYHfdjgt5rASQ`1
As you can see we're still working on his typing. He finished up by laughing and drooling on my keyboard. Now he just sneezed on my typing fingers. My wife has picked him up and he's off to bed. Boy he has been in a good mood all evening.

Thanks Dave!!

Mark Twain and homeschooling

I came across an interesting article by Mrs. du Toit recently. The first part that caught my eye was the title "Finding Mark Twain". I've always enjoyed the books I have read by this author. Upon completing this article, I discovered an interesting blend of Mark Twain, freedom, and homeschooling.

In my experience working with people there are two approaches you can take to get someone else to complete a task. The first is to essentially require/force the person to do it. This involves having some sort of leverage/authority over the person (boss/employee, parent/child, etc). Our government seems to prefer this method forgetting about the whole "of the people by the people" thing. The second approach is for the person to decide that the task is something they want to do. Which method is better? To answer that, when you are presented with a task, would you rather do it because you have to or because you want to?

A famous example of this second approach in action is found in the book Tom Sayer where Tom found a way to persuade his friend to paint the fence by being creative with his understanding and presentation of the job. His friend then decided that he wanted to paint the fence and paid Tom an apple for the privilege.

This concept directly relates to teaching a child via home schooling or via the public school system. In public school, does the child choose what to learn or does the system dictate what he should learn? Does the school provide free time for the student to learn about the things that interest him? Usually not because free time correlates to kids getting into trouble. Could this be because they are not interested in being forced to learn?

A home schooling situation can be much more student driven. The article "Finding Mark Twain" mentions how Mrs. du Toit had to "unschool" her children before they became interested in learning. This unschooling consisted of her giving her children opportunities to learn on their own for about 6 months. This process started with her children asking her questions about lots of different things and Mrs. du Toit helped them find answers to their questions.

I hadn't been able to put my finger on it until I read "Finding Mark Twain", but one reason I like the concept of homeschooling and plan to educate my son in this manner is because I want him to enjoy learning. I want him to learn about the Constitution and the Bill of Rights because he wants to learn about the founding of this great nation. I want him to learn about the Bible because he wants to learn more about being a Christian. If you have a moment, please read Mrs. du Toit's article located here. I think you'll like it.

Learning from history

Well, like a previous post, this isn't exactly a Stillman Family Adventure, but it is right on the money and if heeded would make the world a safer place for the wee one.

http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2007-06-03-1.html

In a previous conversation several weeks ago, my father mentioned how the Iraq war is unusual because the U.S. population has not been called to sacrifice. How can we win a war without a populous who is willing to sacrifice a little? That is mentioned in this article as well.

I'm curious to know what you think about it.

3 bumps and you're crying

As I've mentioned previously Jonathan likes to squirm, wiggle, and move. Because its fairly hot in Nampa in the summer we sleep in the basement on a fairly basic bed without a headboard. I was taking a nap on the bed and when I woke up Gayla placed the child on my right. Jonathan likes to crawl over me so he crawled over me to the left and then back over to the right.

To make things more interesting for him I arched my back so he would have a bit more of a challenge when he climbed over me. He almost made it over when he slipped and his head hit my head at about the same time his head hit the wall that the head of the bed is against with a nice thump. Then half a second later a fairly light picture on the wall above us fell off and hit him on the head. Each bump by itself wouldn't have been too bad, but all together they rung his bell a little.

While that was a bit too much adventure for him all at once, he handled himself fairly well. Afterwards it seemed rather amusing.

Human Caused Global Warming?

Listening to the media, one could conclude that humans are causing global warming/climate change.

Here is an article that tells a little more about the whole story.

http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2007-03-04-1.html

Science isn't really dead, its just being manipulated by certain individuals who like to feel the power.

The Dessert Interupt

Since we can go to the movies for a buck apiece, Gayla and I decided to see something like Remember the Robinsons on Tuesday night. As the small child, aka Jonathan, is now squirmy and wiggly, he is not a good movie watching companion. After a multitude of phone calls we found a friend that was able to watch him (Thanks Joan!).

The movie starts at 7:15 and because it's dollar night we have to get there at least 20 minutes early to procure arm rests for our chosen seats, not to mention drop off the child, contend with construction traffic, etc we needed to leave rather significantly sooner than normal. We had finished the main supper meal in pretty good time and Gayla was running about getting things ready to leave with Jonathan.

Notice that main supper meal does not include dessert so I fixed Dave, Gayla, and myself a nice chocolate covered cookie with 5 chocolate chips on it. Dave and I ate ours pretty quickly, but Gayla was too busy. Whenever I saw her zip through the living room on her way to somewhere to do something I asked her if she was going to eat her dessert. After several times I asked her if I should help her out by eating one of her chocolate chips since it had fallen off the cookie and was trying to escape. She would pause a bit, say "NO!" and then continue on her way. After a few times she started to get irritated. Why that would happen I have no idea. But then Dave helped me figure it out.

He said, "You keep throwing the dessert interrupt so she has to push her registers onto the stack, process your request, and then reload her registers. That's slowing her down when she knows you want to get out the door." Hmm...I thought, "That's an excellent explanation!!"

She did eventually get her dessert and we made it to the movie early enough to procure arm rests. We got pretty good ones, the movie was good too.

The Wiggly One

The Potentate has learned how to wiggle. Not just wiggle, but squirm around and all over. This has led to a few changes in the diaper changing department. Just the other day he escaped from the diaper changing pad by flipping over and crawling onto the computer desk in about 5 seconds. The little safety strap really didn't do much.

Wrapping him to go to bed doesn't really work either. He slept last night with his legs under him kind of on his stomach, but at least he didn't wake up. In the morning when we get up he's usually standing in his crib talking to himself while waiting for someone to come and rescue him.

It's pretty entertaining to watch a highly mobile child explore the house. He's still struggling with going down stairs, off couches and bed, etc. backwards with his feet first, but overall he handles bumps pretty well if he isn't tired.

He's getting a tooth

and he wasn't very happy about it. The first day it emerged he cried a lot and didn't sleep well. He seems to be more used to it now so he is getting back to normal sleep patterns. Overall, he is a bit more cranky during the day.

I think he'll like teeth as it will help him chew meat.

Jonathan and pop cans

Did you know that pop cans are slightly dangerous for small children? Jonathan was having great fun learning to grab an object with two hands in order to suck on it. Then he got a finger in the opening of the can and didn't seem to like it and shook the can off onto the floor.

I checked a little later and he had a little cut on his finger. Fortunately his platelets are functioning normally and Dave had a bandaid we could use. Jonathan spent quite a lot of time examining his new bandaid. It was somewhat large, but seemed to do the job. He didn't even cry. What a guy!

Jonathan sleeps through the entire night

This may not seem that interesting to some, but last night, March 5th, Jonathan went to bed at 10:00 and he didn't wake up until 8:00. Normally I check with Gayla in the morning to hear about how Jonathan did the previous night. He has always woken up around 3:00 or 4:00am. So this morning I was worried something bad might have happened to him, but Gayla went to check on him and he was sleeping peacefully. This could bode well for the future....