Tuesday, February 17, 2009

February 14, 1965


I don't think this photo was taken on the day I was born, but I found it recently in a pile of of high school and college pictures and thought it might be nice to post a baby picture of me, for once.  Happy birthday to me!  Thank you all for your good wishes.

Art






And here are some of Duncan's recent artistic endeavors.  

Faces






Among his latest cognitive tricks, Duncan has been working on his faces. I believe in this particular photo session we had a mad face, a surprised face, a sad face, and a happy face, but he quickly became silly so the happy face tended to leak into the others. The ability to make these faces is actually an important developmental skill because it reflects his ability to recognize the emotions of other people through their facial expressions.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

My Dog Lucy

I was poking through Christmas pictures I took in December and remembered that I had never blogged about Paul and Lucy's last visit. We saw a lot of family and friends during the holidays, and I'm sorry that I didn't blog about all of you. However, Duncan made a significant development that I wanted to document in text and video.

No, we didn't get a dog.

If you're a loyal reader, and family member or friend, you may remember that Duncan has had a difficult time with dogs. He got knocked over by two dogs that belonged to our neighbor and has a continuing adversarial relationship with Bella, the Puggle who lives downstairs. Last year, over the holidays, Paul visited with Sadie. Duncan wouldn't set foot on the floor when Sadie was in the room; his fear was that strong. We carried him from room to room the entire time Sadie was in the house. When Paul started bringing his new dog Lucy, things were a LITTLE better, but it would take an entire weekend with Lucy for Duncan to develop enough comfort to pet her. During our New Year's visit, Duncan was a little nervous at first, and intermittently, but he and Lucy made fast friends. Duncan was willing to pet her, give her treats, and let her lick him. I was thrilled. It's not much of a video, but I really wanted to catch it on film. Enjoy...

Monday, February 2, 2009

January 10, 1996




Jamie and I went on our first date on January 10, 1996. We try to honor the anniversary every year; some years we come closer to the mark than others. When we can, we celebrate by going back to the site of our first date, The Daily Planet, in LaGrangeville. I ate the Mr. Green Jeans salad, which I don't think I've eaten since. It was good, but you only need to eat salad on first date. I remember exactly what I was wearing. We had to wait a few days after he asked me; I don't know if you remember January of 1996, but we had about 3 straight days of snow. Kildonan reopened late after winter break. About half the kids had made it back to campus, but the others were delayed by snow. The roads were still not great by the time we went to dinner on Wednesday, but I trusted his driving. We listened to a CD of B sides of U2 singles in the car. It was a good first date; we've been together ever since. This year, we took Duncan with us. It wasn't the same kind of a date, but sometimes a girl has to accept a third wheel, especially one who is less than 3 feet tall and prone to covering her with sloppy kisses. Maybe it's a new tradition; maybe it was just a nice date with my two favorite guys, but it was a lot of fun.