Concord Hills

A Festivus for the restuvus...

It's December 23rd--also known as Festivus--perhaps you're familiar.

Let us celebrate together this joyous holiday in protest of the commercialization of our society.

Back in the bath again

Last week, much to our relief, Seth got his cast removed. After a month of hobbling around like a gimp, staying away from water and dirt, and giving him spongebaths, Seth's left leg is finally free from bondage and his hair is no longer the rat's nest it was while we couldn't bathe him in the tub. Every night since the cast came off, he has been adamant about taking a bath before he goes to bed. Apparently he missed the bath, although he never once asked for it while he had his cast on--it's like he just understood that he couldn't get the cast wet. The saw used for the cast removal really freaked him out, but once the cast was off, he seemed quite pleased that he could scratch his itchy leg. He's still limping a bit, but hopefully over the coming weeks his gait will normalize as his muscles overcome the atrophy.

Horsing around the night before cast removal--

Rediscovering bath-time fun--

Thanksgiving, if it's not too late

I'm SO sick of big pictures of Seth (our last 3 posts), so I thought I'd say a few words. Aaron had the entire week of Thanksgiving off, so we hit the road to go see some family in the Bay Area and Ashland, Oregon. The trip had a bit of a rough start. Some background: we got in a car accident about a month ago that caused major damage to our Maxima, so our car was at a body shop for weeks. Unlucky little events kept delaying our car's completion. Finally, it was all done and I was to pick up our car the day before our roadtrip, but then I got a call--a disgruntled employee had stopped by the shop to pick up his last paycheck and on his way out the door, keyed our car from front to back, knowing full well that it was a big job they had just completed, with an incredibly expensive paint job process that the garage would have to eat. So, after filing a police report, the garage put us in a rental car for our trip and we took off the next morning. Half an hour into our trip, one of the rear tires blew into shreds on the freeway (we didn't even hit anything). Seth LOVED leaning out the window and watching Aaron put the spare tire on, while yelling "Dad! Dad!" Anyway, 3 hours later, the local Enterprise sent us on our way in a Kia Spectra. That Kia made me more thankful this Thanksgiving that we own a car that actually accelerates when you push on the gas. Thanks, Nissan.

In Gilroy, Seth had to visit his farm animal friends, as always--this time with a plastic bag around his leg so the chickens couldn't "sign" Seth's cast with their detritus. With the bad luck our family's been having lately, I hope it wasn't us who cast a black cloud on the farm because the next day some pit bulls got through the fences and killed a litter of piglets, and then a few days later a bunch of sheep. Those jerks! (Only us humans are allowed to slaughter those animals when we get a hankering for pork or mutton). Some of those animals were more like pets though, so it was pretty sad.

In Ashland, we had a great time just talking and joking with my brothers and their families, playing games, eating great food, hot-tubbing in my brother's yard (more of a forest than a yard) where you could see a million stars in the sky. Our turkey turned out fantastic. For you foodies: we brined it for a day, cooked it with butter-soaked cheesecloth on top, and white wine in the pan (which made awesome gravy). My mom's rolls are probably half butter, so they were delicious. It was a memorable feast.

Dog Lover

Thoughts on chiseling through the frontal bone

Some thoughts from today, perhaps a little heavy for the family blog and not really all that amusing, which is the usual goal (although not always achieved) of these posts, but oh well. My anatomy class is drawing to a close pretty soon, so I was thinking about that today.

While chiseling through the inside of a human skull to allow access to the orbit and a detailed study of the intrinsic eye muscles, opthalmic artery, and the paths of the cranial nerves innervating the eye and it's musculature, I was reflecting on the uniqueness of my actions. As I carefully picked out small lobules of fat between the muscles, nerves, and arteries behind the eye with my forceps, I thought how strange it was that I was peering into an empty human cranium.
All in all, aside from the putrid stench of formaldehyde I can't seem to remove from my hands on dissection days, it has been a really cool experience to learn every centimeter of the miraculous human body in such an intimate and unique way. It's strange to think how much I've learned from this nameless 90-something year-old white female who died of congestive heart failure. I don't even know her name, but for the rest of my life, as I re-learn and add on to my knowledge of the intricacies of the human body and all of its nuances and beauty, I'll think of her.

Makin' Juice

I love fresh carrot juice, but Aaron has never been enthusiastic about joining me for a glass of "dirt water". Seth has overcome his Rutman genetics and not only drinks carrot juice, but squeals with joy when we make it and drink it. That's what I'm talking about! We'd go through 20 pounds of carrots a week if I let Seth make juice as much as he'd like to--but I'm not interested in cleaning the juicer every day. So in between juicings, Seth gets the carrots out of the crisper drawer and pretends he's juicing them in our machine. I frequently find beautiful carrot arrangements poking out of our juice machine-turned vase.

At the Zoo

Broken Boy

Our sweet little Sethy-Pie fractured his tibia a couple of days ago. He fell off a swing at the playground, and I was really surprised that he got hurt so badly. When you have a kid who's as active and daring as him, and who falls all the time, you start to think their resiliency is unlimited. Apparently Seth's tibia has limitations.
The first picture nicely captures Seth's enthusiasm for the splint they put on him in the ER yesterday. Tonight he got the full leg cast (which has to remain on him for a month). Hopefully he'll quickly learn to walk with this thing on. I can't begin to express how pathetic and sad it is to see Seth so helpless and frustrated the last couple of days. Even when he does learn to walk on it though, it'll still be a long month since some of his favorite activities--bathing, playing in the dirt in our garden, and going to the beach--will have to stop while his cast is on. Even his favorite sleeping position (face down, with his legs tucked under him and his butt in the air) is now an impossibility. He'll adapt, but we're still counting down the days.

Viva La Revolución!

Happy Halloween from Poncho Villa!

Pumpkins

Last night we got together with some med school buddies to carve pumpkins and roast some seeds. Good times. Seth ended up playing catch with our friend Pasi for a good few hours--with a key lime as a ball. He did not want to stop. We didn't even leave until 10:30 pm--every time we said we had to go, he would vehemently shake his head 'no' and pretend he wasn't tired at all. As the night wore on he went from standing up and dancing while playing catch, to sitting down while playing catch, to laying down on the ground and playing catch. It was pretty funny to see this exhausted little boy laying down on the ground with droopy eyes, trying his hardest stay awake to play catch with a dirty little key lime.

Handfuls of pumpkin seeds in the mouth--

Up to no good--

Pasi playing catch with Seth--

Lindsay's still pregnant--

The final product--

pinewood chicken

A couple of weeks ago, we had a pinewood derby at our church. I love a good excuse to make stuff like this. My everyday life doesn't allow me enough opportunities to work with glue and feathers (there are about 6 glue sticks on this car by the way). I hope I don't embarrass my kids someday when they need my help with projects and still want to feel cool about themselves when they present it. Since I have no woodcarving tools, I knew all I could do was decorate my block of wheeled wood. Seth's undying love for chickens was my inspiration. When I brought it to the race and set it on the stand with all the other cars, I noticed a bunch of people didn't register it in their minds as a competitor in the race. Then they realized, why is there a chicken decorating the table of cars? Oh--that IS a car. I wasn't all too concerned about aerodynamics, so it certainly didn't win the speed award. Fortunately, the judges gave out one more award: creative design. This bad boy won me a $6 gift card to Rubios. I of course cashed it in on $1 fish taco night.

(Note from Aaron: not only did it not win any races, it didn't FINISH any races. Chickens are not the swiftest of birds, and it turns out feathers can slow you down. It never made it to the finish line, but was still the most stylish car.)

Pssszzztha

Seth's getting better at a lot of his pronunciations, but there are some baby pronunciations I'll really miss when they disappear. "Pizza" is one of those.

Peeessss, Peessss!

From Seth 18 months old

There's nothing much new to report, so I thought I'd just post a recent picture of Seth. Although he remains in the 5th percentile in both height and weight, he's in the 99th percentile in looks and charm. Every day he's adding new vocal words to his vocabulary in addition to the myriad of sign language words he already has in his repertoire. It's basically impossible to say "no" to him when he simultaneously smiles at you, says "peesss, peeesss, peessss!", and rubs his chest (the sign for please). In other news, Lindsay is doing great with the pregnancy, I'm tolerating school. Hopefully we'll have a more entertaining/funny post in the near future.

Exploration

Seth's new BFF

Life got a lot more fun this past month when my cousin Jenn and her family moved into the same apartment complex as us, just two buildings away. She and her husband Kris have a boy (Sam) who's just a few weeks younger than Seth, and it's fun to see their friendship develop. Sam's already pretty good at saying Seth's name. Seth, however, calls Sam "cheese", and started doing this from about the day they moved in. We don't know if it's his sincere attempt at pronouncing "Sam", or if he'll be one of those people who instantly nicknames people he meets. We decided Cheese is a pretty cool nickname, so we've just gone along with it. Seth says it with a lot of gusto and repeats it over and over when he's around Sam, usually looking for eye contact from the adults around as if seeking approval to the question-- "is this or is this not my friend Cheese?" It was a bit disruptive when Seth broke into a loud episode of "Cheese!" repetitions during the middle of church when he spotted Sam a few pews ahead of us. People at church must think our kid has a serious food obsession. They'll hear me respond to Seth's cheese rants by saying stuff like "you can play with Cheese later", not knowing we're talking about a person.
Sam is a lot more chill than Seth, and doesn't express the same enthusiasm for Seth's presence (although I think he likes him). Seth has no concept for personal space, and is always touching Sam, trying to get him to play ball, and stealing his toys. For one-year-olds, that's a friendship that works.

Groovin to the beat

Every family has video of their kid dancing. We're no different. We really get a kick out of how much Seth loves music, and how he likes to move his body to the beat. He can really get down.

From Kris J's B-day

Girl.

We're having a girl. [[[At least it seems that way. I don't want to be a downer, but there's a small chance (about 1 in 20,000) that the absence of obvious external genitalia (i.e. a phallus) are a result of androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS), a set of disorders defined by varying degrees of androgen (i.e. testosterone) resistance due to genetic mutations in the androgen receptor. So someone with this problem would be a phenotypic female, and genetic male. Now that I've just proven to everyone that I am both a nerd and mentally twisted...]]] Anyway, the little girl looks healthy as can be (and chances are she's a perfectly normal 46, XX) and Lindsay is looking radiant. You know, that shine that pregnant ladies exude...she's a total babe.

Anyway, I know almost nothing about raising a little female munchkin, and in truth I'm a little scared. I think she's pretty cute already, despite the fact that I've only seen coronal cross-sections of her sinuses and abdomen. (Look, she's waving.) I'm in love already and really excited for the little sweetie to come. There's something about seeing the sonogram and knowing the sex that makes it so real--I guess this baby really is coming in February. I admit that although we thought it would be a great idea to have another kid, the gravity of the situation didn't cross my mind at the moment of conception. Either way, I think I'm already prepared to just give her whatever she wants--she's already got me wrapped around her finger.

So here we go--we'll have the full collection. A boy and a girl.

By the way, we'll happily take any name suggestions, although I can't guarantee that I won't think your suggestion is totally lame. Lindsay and I already dislike most every name the other has come up with.

Happy Birthday Aaron

Aaron turned 27 on Tuesday. He never feels like he's getting all that old whenever a birthday comes around, because I'm always 5 years ahead of him. He expressed some discouragement last week as he pondered the idea that he'll never catch up with me. He teases me frequently about my age, and I occasionally try to return the favor by saying stuff like "oh, quit acting like a 27 year old and grow up!"
For his birthday, I helped feed the techno-junky that is my husband, and got him an iPhone. That thing is pretty awesome. It's kind of cute to see him stay up late playing with it, and getting up in the morning and immediately playing with his toy again. I made him his favorite chocolate ganache cake with raspberry coulis and fresh raspberries. Friends came over to help us eat it, and to celebrate Aaron's birth. Thanks for being born, and thanks to Jeannine for birthing him.

Play Ball

The new Rut

I'm about 3 months pregnant, so I figured it's about time to mention it on our blog--especially since we're really excited about it. We're pretty in love with Seth, and part of us can't imagine that rolling the dice with our gametes again could possibly create another child as adorable as him, but we decided to give it a shot.
I was spoiled with a really easy Seth pregnancy, but this time around I've been incredibly nauseated and even throwing up. Since the baby is just as much Aaron's as mine, he kindly refers to my illness as "our nausea" (also an Arrested Development reference for you fans out there). If anybody remembers my tale from January of Seth cracking up hysterically while I was vomiting--he still thinks throwing up is hilarious. Food and cooking is usually a major interest of mine, so to lose all interest in it lately has been like losing a good friend. For several weeks, I couldn't stand anything remotely sweet. Ben and Jerry have been sitting in our freezer developing ice crystals. Seth's been eating all the nectarines. Even bran flakes were too sweet, and I just couldn't bring myself to cook dinner anymore. We've somehow survived my first trimester on bagels, crackers, and ramen, and I'm feeling much better lately.
This pregnancy has made for interesting timing with my new job. My blood pressure runs pretty low and I'm especially prone to getting faint while pregnant, which I've unfortunately already demonstrated at work. The difference is, at this hospital, when they help you to a couch to lie down, and bring you some juice--it's fresh squeezed (I'm not kidding). As nice as that is, it doesn't quite make up for the embarrassing attention.
I had to bring Seth with me to a prenatal appointment recently. He's so excited about the new Rut (actually he doesn't get it), he just HAD to lay on my chest and hold me while I got a pelvic exam. It was pretty awkward, but thanks for the support Seth. He's also obsessed with lifting up my shirt to expose my belly, and cuddling on my skin, slapping it, and throwing his weight on my belly. I've got to break him of this habit as the baby grows. I hope it's not indicative of how rough he'll play with the baby.

New game: screaming, writhing, throwing tantrums

95% of being a parent is awesome. There's no better feeling than coming home from work/school and your kid comes running to the door to give you a hug. However, the other 5% can best be represented by these pictures:

These are the times that make you wonder--why are we going to continue procreating? They say at about three years old that the 5% gets a lot easier. And plus, there's the 95% to keep you going.

Vindicated...turns out air guitar is a real instrument

A friend of mine recently informed me of a world class event going on in the great city of San Francisco. The National Finals for the US Air Guitar Championship is being held tonight. This is an event rising in popularity over the past few years, and I've always wanted to check it out.

Now if any of you know me, you know that I hate to dance. I hate singing in public. But if there is anything for which I can release my inhibitions, it's playing an imaginary guitar. Not to boast, but seriously, I can shred an air axe like you wouldn't believe. I've been doing it since I was very young, since my uncle Dave introduced me to the genius that is Led Zeppelin. Sometimes I can't help myself: I've been known to drive with my knees for short periods of time so I could play a particularly intense run with Jimmy Page or Angus Young in the car. Lindsay makes fun of me, but that's okay, not everyone can comprehend the genius of a Stevie Ray Vaughn.

Anyway, the winner of the US National Finals goes on to compete in the Air Guitar World Championship in Oulu, Finland. A taste of what we're dealing with here:



I'm actually pretty confident I could be competitive at a thing like this.

Hat?

In honor of the Giants victory over the Padres last night, a game which I attended and enjoyed with a bunch of med school buddies, a picture of Seth:

Although Seth has since he was born absolutely hated hats, he has a newfound love for this baseball cap. When he sees me wearing my hat he pats his head (the sign for hat in sign language) and says, "hattt, haattt?"--when I put his hat on for him all he wants is to look in the mirror. He'll look over at me with a grin, as if to say "Dad, can you even believe how cool I look right now?"

pitch it dad...

I took this video a few weeks ago:

Seth will literally play this game with you for hours if you can stand it. His first word was "ball", and his obsession with throwing, hitting, and kicking balls of all sizes has only escalated since. Every day we play this game, and he's getting better and better. Maybe all 15-month-olds can hit a ball with a bat, but I've not seen it too often, so it still kind of impresses me. He's even better at it now--he can make contact with a small ball tossed to him if you count down from three before you toss it (I presume this assists him with timing his swing). I wish I could get it on camera but he doesn't like it when I pitch and film at the same time (maybe he takes it as an insult to his talents).

A constant game of charades

I love the baby sign language trend that started several years ago. Seth's one of those kids who has really latched onto it. He loves being able to see things around him and let us know that he recognizes it. He says words too, but signing opens up his vocabulary to words he wouldn't be able to say very well yet--like strawberry, helicopter, or grandma. Just like when kids will talk jibberish, and you have no idea what they're saying, Seth makes up signs (sometimes a whole sentence worth) that leave us clueless. But it's so fun to watch him act out what's on his mind, and sometimes we eventually figure out what he means. We were able to crack the code on "bubbles" and "baseball". As great a teachers as Aaron and I are, I should give some credit to the PBS show "Signing Time", from which Seth has picked up a ton of signs. He's been mezmorized by that show since he was 11 months old. We're glad he enjoys it so much, but the songs they sing are driving Aaron and me up the wall. I can't tell you how many times I've lied awake at night singing in my head those songs about washing my hands or eating 5 fruits and vegetables a day. Any other parents out there who understand what it's like to have Signing Time songs stuck in your head? We need a support group.

Good day sunshine

I don't mean to brag or make anyone jealous, but I just had to share with you this week's weather forecast for San Diego. The high cost of living here doesn't seem so bad with this in mind.

flavor tripping

I recently learned of the existence of the plant Sideroxylon dulcificum, otherwise known as the Miracle fruit plant. This plant produces small red berries that contain an active glycoprotein called miraculin, which, when eaten, binds to the taste buds of the tongue, modyifying their function. Although miraculin itself is not sweet, it can change your perception of sour and bitter foods into sweet, even hours after eating the berry. Although the exact mechanism is not known, it is theorized that miraculin can change the structure of taste cells, allowing acids (usually percieved as sour) to bind sweet receptors. Pretty cool...
Apparently, after eating a berry, lemons taste like lemonade and cheeses taste like frosting. There's an underground scene of "flavor tripping" parties, where people will eat some berries and then sample a plethora of sour and bitter foods and drinks (as reported in this NY Times article). Sounds like fun, although a bit expensive, considering each berry goes for around $2. This just might be the answer to my vegetable-hating issues. I used to hate it when my mom would say, "eat your zucchini, really, it's so sweet it's like candy", as if I don't know what candy tastes like. Perhaps this berry really could make veggies taste like candy. Yay for nature!

Seth at wider apertures

So I don't want to turn this into my own personal photoblog, but not too long ago I got a Nikon 50mm f/1.4 lens, which I have been coveting for some time. Most of you are thinking, who cares? Well, I do, and luckily, I convinced Lindsay that she cares too; because, indirectly, it's all about Seth. The more camera equipment I have, the better pictures I can get of our little boy model and his future siblings-to-be. (I know, it's probably not necessary to have as many pictures of any single person as I do of Seth, but I'm a little obsessed...)
And with this lens, it really is all about Seth. The idea is that with a prime lens like this one, you get really wide apertures. That's what the f/1.4 means. The smaller the number, the wider the aperture. This means that the lens can get more light in, in a faster amount of time, so you can shoot with much faster shutter speeds in low light situations without a tripod. Follow me? So with a regular lens with a smaller aperture, say a f/4.5, you might try to get a shot in low light and it'll come out blurry and dark unless you use a flash. With this 50mm f/1.4 lens, the faster shutter speed means it won't be as blurry and the wider aperture means it won't be so dark, even without a flash. 'Cause who likes harsh flashes anyway? You want good, natural light in your pics. So this lens means better pictures indoor, of people, i.e. Seth!
The other thing that a wide aperture prime lens does for you is that it allows you to really play with the depth of field. A wider aperture means a shallower depth of field. So if my aperture is set to f/1.4, that means that only the parts of the picture at a certain distance will be in focus, while I'll get a nice stylized blurr, or bokeh, in the rest of the image where everything is at a shallower and longer depth. So it's fun to stylize things with a lens like this. Alright, that's enough of that--I'm just trying to justify myself for spending money that I won't have until 2017.

Music to downward dog

Friday night some friends of ours watched Seth while Lindsay and I (and our friend Jane) went to a concert downtown. We saw one of my recent favorite artists, Sean Hayes. The crazy thing was, the show was at a yoga studio. It made for a pretty interesting and intimate venue--there were probably only about 70 people there, sitting on pillows and yoga mats while it was just Sean and his guitar up front. The show was fantastic and reminded me how I haven't played much guitar myself lately. If you're into singer/songwriter-alternative-acoustic-folk-rock music, check out Sean Hayes on iTunes--look for the songs "Flowering Spade", "Rattlesnake Charm", "A Thousand Tiny Peices", "Never Alone".

Na-bis-co...bing!

I think that we should get royalties from Nabisco for posting these pictures online. After seeing these, who wouldn't want a box of wheat thins? I could just see these on a billboard.

By the way, did you know that the company's name, Nabisco, used to be National Biscuit Company until it changed its name to Nabisco in 1971? It has been a subsidiary of Kraft foods since it was bought by the Philip Morris company in 2000. Ya, your tasty party treats were financed by the same people that try to convince your children to smoke cigarettes 'cause it's really cool, the Philip Morris companies. Luckily, that's a thing of the past: Kraft foods (including Nabisco) spun off from Philip Morris in 2007, so now it's ok to eat Wheat Thins without supporting the evil empire that is the Philip Morris companies (Altria Group, Inc). I know, interesting, huh?

Yummy Sushi!

Over three years ago now Lindsay and I were on our honeymoon at the Hotel Del Coronado here in San Diego. (Actually, it's technically in the city of Coronado, an island connected to San Diego by a bridge). Little did we know that we'd be moving here a couple years later. While there, we took a walk to a little sushi restaurant near the hotel--Yummy Sushi it's called--it was delicious and is still a memorable meal to this day.

With our 4th of July trip down to Coronado, we decided to return, and were once again not disappointed.
Spicy Tuna and unagi:

Sushi is a bit expensive to feed to a kid, so Seth just ate crackers and grapes. Actually, in this instance, the grapes were just mini baseballs to him while the chopsticks were mini baseball bats.

And the rockets red glare....

This represents my first serious attempt at photos of fireworks. It was a bit hazy unfortunately so they didn't turn out too stellar. The trick to fireworks is to have a long enough exposure that you get good streams of light without making it so long that you overexpose the streams (I was usually somewhere around 1-2 seconds on the shutter speed). The secret is that, perhaps against intuition, you want to stop down to a much smaller aperture. You might think that you'd want a wide aperture to let in more light against such a dark sky, but it actually turns out that a wide aperture will overexpose the bright streaks of color against the black sky, so you need to stop down to f/8 or even f/16 to preserve the rich colors. The other important points are to manually focus on infinity (so your camera isn't searching for a subject to focus on against a black sky), and most importantly, of course, to use a tripod. Unfortunately, i have a pretty pisspoor tripod that is anything but the epitome of stability, which certainly took away some sharpness. Hopefully next year I'll get some better shots and maybe get some better foreground subject. (And maybe we'll win the lottery and I'll get the tripod and head I want).