Kidstuff: 2 month old magician (Life's little lessons #5312)

One of the foundations of magic is the graceful art of distraction. If you can get the audience looking at your right hand, your left hand is free to put a rabbit in your hat or load some cards. My 2 month old daughter has demonstrated this ability.

I was halfway into a diaper change, had the old one off and was wrapping it up, and not awake enough to have unfolded the new clean dry one. I looked at her face, our eyes met, (as a parent, baby eyes are extremely engaging, especially once you can tell there is a mind behind them, and that they see *you* not just shapes and light) and then the sweetest baby girl in the world smiled at me, then topped it off with the coup-de-grace of a delightfully vocalized "goo". I melted completely -- if she had asked "daddy buy me a Ferrari", the house would have been double mortgaged in an instant.

Moment over, back to the task at hand...hey, wait a minute...the changing table is wet...how did that happen...oh!

Some weeks ago, I had the audacity to laugh at my wife who, in a very practiced fashion, and almost a single movement, pulled the old diaper out and put the new diaper under. A lesson, that by the second child, you'd think I'd know...

rootie

Life's little lessons #5047

I recently took my 4 year old son on a hike, deliberately using his enthusiasm to get "all the way to the top of Tablerock!" as an excuse for me to get some exercise in cold crisp winter air. We left the car in the parking lot early (10:30am ;-)) on a sub-freezing morning, with a sandwich to share, a variety of snacks, a thermos full of hot chocolate in my fanny pack, and my camera equipped with the long lens (70-300mm).

As we're starting up the trail, I recall thinking to myself: "it looks kinda muddy, but we're not making any tracks in it, so let's continue up and see how it goes. " (if you've already figured out the mystery, keep it to yourself and don't spoil the ending for everyone else)


A 4 year old boy, no matter how enthusiastic about reaching the top, is not particularly focused on the climb, so we stopped at every bush, icy puddle, interesting rock, deer track, dog track, elk(!) track on the trail on the way up. We didn't set any land speed records on the ascent. In fact, by the time we got up close to the top, the sun had been shining long enough that the trail which "looked kinda muddy" was, in fact, muddy enough that you couldn't really climb it and keep your feet. He ended up developing some outdoor skills like "dad -- help me up!" to make it the last 30 feet of the climb and avoid the muddy trail.

Elk Track!

After 3 hours, 800 vertical feet and 1.6 miles from the car (thank you google maps for adding topographic information!), we sat at the cliff edge of the plateau, ate the sandwich and drank hot chocolate from mickey mouse dixie cups, while enjoying the view. *ahhhhh*

Then it came time to go back down.

Funny thing about water -- when it gets cold, it freezes to become a solid, but once heated it will melt and return to liquid form. This fact should have been "frozen" into my memory from childhood years of dealing with mud, snow and cold. What was a firm grippy surface for most of the hike up had become a sticky gooey quagmire that makes almond butter seem like a lubricant.

Those of you in winter climes understand that there is good snow for making snowmen, and there is bad snow for making snowmen. If there were such a thing as mudmen, this would have been the perfect mud to use! The last 20 yards of the trail, I had 4" tall mud-block platforms attached to the bottom of my boots, and Nicolas had 2-3" of mud on his shoes. I'm not particularly mess-averse, but we were muddy enough when we got back to the car, I stripped him down to his long johns for the ride home.

I am amazed that Nicolas made it all the way up and back, and in good spirits too! He was my "little truck" for the rest of the weekend.

rootie

Life's little lessons #5001 - 5005

I bought a new camera the other day. Oh the excitement of a new toy. Just think of the wonderful pictures I'll be able to take! (and share with all my friends)

What an education!

5001. There is a phenomenon I am sure the mechanics among you will recognize. If you have an old car with many years and miles on it, replacing one part will often mean you must replace other parts. What starts out small can grow beyond your expectations.

5002. 2 memory cards @ 8GB each. 2GB free hard drive space for picture downloads. (something's gotta grow all right :O )

5003. I can shoot RAW images at incredible speed. I'll just pull them into the software I already have...uh...hmmm...Nikon changed their RAW file format so none of my current (preferred) software will read the raw format images. I guess I need another upgrade.

5004. Shopping for personal items (ahem, I mean a camera bag, which is definitely personal preference) can take longer than expected and shouldn't be done while accompanied by a preschooler. I figured 10, maybe 15 minutes tops -- about an hour later we were back on the road.

5005. 20x spotting scopes at convenient eye level make great entertainment for a 4 year old...though I bet the camera store clerk gained a few gray hairs. It's one of those little things: "daddy daddy, come look, there's a video in this! it's a video daddy, come look! it's a video!"

It has been a busy autumn with so many lessons to learn.

May your fallen leaves be crunchy, colorful and deep!

rootie