The killer web browser feature

Just look at the headline and top image from this Lifehacker article on all new and evolving web browsers. It's clear what single feature could cause a web browser to break from the pack and set the new standard: a non-round logo.

Tiny Diner

Owen does like to eat. A lot. I think he may actually eat more that his grandmother. Tonight for dinner he ate cauliflower, spinach, tofu, bread, plus some of my hamburger and bun. I never thought I’d say this about a baby, but sometimes the little dude really gets a hankering for tofu. He also likes avocados, broccoli, hummus, and really hasn’t turned up his nose at anything yet. Except for chili, which he accidentally got a taste of when he was 4 months old (ask Travis). And his interest in green beans waxes and wanes. Now he doesn’t really like to eat baby food – no more rice cereal and smooth textures. Finger foods are the way to go. His current favorite foods are bananas and cheese, which I think makes him similar to 99.5% of the babies in the US.

Sometimes though, he gets very opinionated about his food. Something he liked the day before is now only good for tossing to Furry Lewis. Yesterday, I found him stashing beans on our window sill.

Just FYI, the Tiny Diner, is also the name of a portable rubber placemat that suctions to tables. We have one, and it rocks. It keeps Owen from destroying our friends tables and is also great for restaurants. It even has a drop tray at the edge, to keep food out of his lap.

Why it’s important to keep the pantry door closed

We have a pantry closet in our kitchen. Inside, our microwave rests on a shelf, and we have assorted foods, cloth grocery bags, and baby stuff on the shelves. The floor is generally sparkling water and beer storage. There’s enough room for one adult to stand inside; and plenty of room for a baby to make mischief.

Last week I was cooking dinner for Travis and I (veggie and tofu curry) while cooking some O food for the week (sweet potatoes, broccoli, etc). Owen was playing in ‘his’ cabinet in the kitchen – the one without a latch, filled with things for him to play with. In seconds, he had invaded the pantry, grabbed a bottle of beer, and dropped it. It didn’t break, thank goodness, but the top popped off, shot across the kitchen, and beer went everywhere. I’m not exaggerating, the beer was EVERYWHERE in our kitchen. All over Owen and all over me. His high chair, the table and chairs, the fridge, dishwasher, oven and cabinets all had beer on them. There were also numerous toys, such as O’s music table, shape-sorting cube, some stuffed animals covered in beer. The ceiling was spared (for the record, my mom is the only person who has spilled beer onto the ceiling of our house, but that’s a story for another time). Owen was a little perturbed by being covered in smelly brown liquid.

Where to start cleaning? Clearly, with Owen. He had a bath and went to bed at 7:15 pm. Then I changed clothes and set to work on the kitchen. All told, it took 1.5 hours to clean up.

What’s the moral of this story?

Keep the pantry door closed.

Remember when everyone was all a-twitter about Fred Thompson running for president?

It seems so long ago...

Still funny, tho

Truck! Truck! Truck!

Owen is getting more talky and his favorite word is currently 'Truck!', which sounds more like 'trukk!'. He uses it to describe trucks, cars, and any large vehicle that might possibly be some kind of truck (bus, wood chipper, etc). His current favorite book is 'Tough Machines', which has pictures of trukks to include tractors, dump trucks, cement mixer, steam roller, digger, etc. We read it at least twice a day. Still a far cry from Brown Bear Brown Bear status, but we're getting there.

When in Austin, use a sheet

One of Kerry and my favorite stories is from our first trip together to Austin, many moons ago. We spent the night with friend who was spending the summer at one of UT's co-op houses. Said house was not air-conditioned, so it was about 90 degrees in the room we were sharing, with zero air circulation. Further, our friend gave us a mattress to sleep on. A mattress: no sheets, no pillows. Suffice it to say, we did not sleep well. We stopped trying at about 4 or 5 in the morning - remember, we were college-aged, so that was the equivalent of giving up on sleep at about midnight these days - and went out driving, looking for someplace with air-conditioning and food, in that order of importance. (Happily, the place we found, completely by accident, was the Star Seeds Cafe, an Austin landmark with enormous, fluffy pancakes and a thermostat set for the last ice age.)

There's a clear lesson here, and as many times as Kerry and I have told this story - many long-time Hollerer readers no doubt know who our host was that summer long ago - you would think we would have learned the lesson: when in Austin, use a sheet on your bedding. Alas, even those who know history are sometimes doomed to repeat it. While visiting Scott and Carlie at their new home in Austin this weekend, Owen's been using their portable crib, which we found set up without a sheet. The past three days, he hasn't slept particularly well, often waking up sweaty. We had attributed this to his trying to sleep in a strange place and wrestling with an illness. But last night, Kerry suggested we get a sheet. It turns out a sheet had been intended for the crib and was missing quite by accident. The sheet is on, it's now 0630, and it's the first time Owen has slept past 0500 this trip.

(It should go without saying that the air-conditioning has been working the whole time.)

Ed. note: Kerry read this and said, "This makes us sound like bad parents." Erm. She also notes that we had asked if we needed to bring crib bedding. Having been told "no", she says that when she saw the port-a-crib, she thought it had a special kind of mattress that didn't need a sheet.