Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Paela and Aderyn played a lot with trains this week. Aderyn is loving her newfound mobility. She is a happier camper the better she gets at crawling, as she can now chase us when we leave the room.

Or get into the cat food.

Or tear apart the train tracks Paela built up.

You can imagine how Paela and Star car feel about this. On the plus side, Paela is beginning to learn the powers of distraction. For example, we teach her to create decoy lines of the train cars she doesn't care about, in order to protect the line of her favorite train cars from the destructive powers of a baby on the move. She is learning, as this morning she used a decoy of the lego helicopter in order to keep Aderyn from crawling into the cat litter box. Go Paela, go.  read more »

I got a new phone. And after a few days, it broke. The screen is really weak and it cracked in my pocket during daily use. This isn't a good phone for me. Sadly, my phone broke on June 15th. If that date is meaningless to you, it is because you aren't one of the 600,000 people who were attempting to get the newest iphone on the first day it went on sale. So, I tried to get my phone exchanged and failed. Eventually -- after AT&T's service collapsed under duress -- it was decided that they would postpone sales of iPhones. But their company is still reeling from the destruction left in the wake. How do I know? Because I have tried on three occasions to exchange my phone. Each time, I manage to get on the phone with someone, but then something disrupts the transaction. Once it was the inability of the service provider to access their own databases.  read more »

After a month or two of trying, we finally got out to the ICA this week. What with emergency room trips and crazy game day traffic, we were starting to think we would not see the Roni Horn exhibit before it left the ICA! But finally, three days before the end, we made it out there without much ado. We enjoyed the trip. Aderyn slept in the moby, Paela loved the sculptures, and we even found cheap parking. Hooray.

Though Wayne commented that he always forgets how small the ICA is.   read more »

There were plenty of hot muggy days and the other days were thunder storms. Paela informs us that clouds say "boom" in the night; apparently they wake Aderyn as well. Aderyn, at times, can be a very sensitive sleeper. However, we have found that Aderyn is at the age she wants to put herself to sleep. We give her a pacifier and lay her down in her crib and she does the rest. This means she does a better job in the night, even though we are still at three (ten minute or less) wakings. But, no longer do we have two hour wake periods at one in the morning.   read more »

The climax of the week happened Friday evening after dinner. Wayne and Aderyn had already headed outside because of the heat while Paela and I finished clearing the table. Paela and I went to join them, but Paela turned to go downstairs (where she thought they had gone) and turned too fast when I told her they were actually the other way, outside. This meant she lost her balance and took a tumble down the stairs. The whole flight, minus the first step. It was a terrible thing to watch. Head over heels backwards.  read more »

Rebecca had visiting teach on Monday, which meant that she took Aderyn with her and I stayed home with Paela. Because Rebecca's visiting teaching companion has a four-year old, she came over to play with Paela. We've done this arrangement in the past and it worked out fine, but this was the first time that I have seen Paela become more reactive and interactive with her playmates. In the past, she will play with her 'friends' in a similar way as she would play with her baby sister: she brings them toys and runs around talking at them, instead of talking with them and responding to their interests. On Monday, there was a change.  read more »

It was a pretty slow week. Paela and Aderyn both got pretty sick, making sleep difficult to come by -- for us and for Aderyn. This, of course, is the story of Aderyn's life so far.

Paela woke up with a crusty eye a couple of days in a row, in addition to her cold, so she had the privilege of going to see the doctor. Conjunctivitis, was the verdict. Eye drops, the treatment. Ever try to get a toddler to let you put eye drops in her eye? Ever try to get her to let you put eye drops in a second or third or fifteenth time? If you wonder just how physically strong your toddler is, just try putting an eye drop in several times a day. You will learn. You will learn that you are not as strong as the toddler is. You will learn that two grown adults are almost not as strong as the toddler is.  read more »

Classes are on their last week. Over the past year, I have learned a few things that I wish to incorporate into next year's classes, such as minimizing the number of "projects" and have more in-class assignments which will develop skills leading to those primary projects. While I have gone into these multimedia courses with the belief that the majority of students at college age have familiarity with basic internet and multimedia skills, I believe this to be a false pretense that has caused friction with coursework at NECC. However, I am also shocked to learn at how many colleges still do not incorporate internet learning and researching into their coursework; this is a key ingredient to how the world functions today and so it shouldn't be looked on as a pariah to be avoided in academia.  read more »

"Going to work" has been our explanation to Paela for disappearance of her mom or her dad for ages now. Even when it's just down to the basement that Wayne or I went to go work in isolation. She now practices this herself, going off to our bedroom and shutting the door behind me, explaining that she is going to work and will miss me. And then she "reads" her books to herself. I think. I hope.

Aderyn started blowing raspberries and spitting bubbles in the last few days. She thinks she is awfully cute, especially when she entices me to vibrate my lips or tongue with her. She is. I am probably not quite so cute. She smiles anyway. 

We have had warm enough days for sidewalk chalk and parks, and for just plain running around in the back yard. In fact, we're tempted to bring our window air conditioner upstairs this week since it's supposed to be 80 most of the week. 80 is really actually quite hot for Boston. Humidity, oh, what joy you are.  read more »

"It may be difficult for parents of postcolicky infants after four months of age to eliminate frequent night wakings and lengthen sleep durations. If a child fails to learn to fall asleep unassisted, the result is sleep fragmentation or sleep deprivation driven by intermittent positive parental reinforcement. This causes fatigue-driven fussiness long after the colic has resolved, which ultimately creates an overtired family."

Pyre wakes about once every hour or two at night.

I had some really positive interviews this week. The flights were good and I felt the interviews went really well. I got along well with the faculty and would love to hear back from them soon. Hopefully an offer will be in the future.  read more »