No is no

Owen knows "no". Three times in the last 24 hours, he was messing with something he oughtn't (once the cord on a lamp, twice the broiler door). All three times, I said "no", firmly, but not particularly dramatically. All three times, he looked at me, stopped what he was doing, and started doing something acceptable without leaving the location of the forbidden fruit. As if he though, "Oh yes, that's right, I'm not supposed to pull on the lamp cord. I'll just remove these books from the shelf instead. That will be fine."

I was and am amazed, and am enjoying it while it lasts. (The Vegas line is currently another 36 hours.)

First Blood

Owen took a tumble yesterday evening, breaking his fall with his upper lip on the edge of the coffee table. His two front upper teeth, only in for a couple of weeks now, nicely incised the inside of that lip. Blood and crying ensued. Actually, there was a good bit less crying than I had expected. He kept sucking on his upper lip, presumably trying to figure out why it was getting so puffy and now had a metallic taste. He also gave one of his "Bbbbbbb"s while the blood was still flowing, which made for a nice spray.

I should note that he didn't completely break his fall with his lip. His head bounced a bit, then he tried breaking his fall with his forehead. This, also, failed to completely break the fall - though it has given him a nice bindi - so he gave up and just went the rest of the way to the floor.

We're so proud that he is active and mobile enough to start hurting himself.

Naturally, the horse having left the barn, a pad now covers the edge of the coffee table.

Q: How do you know your new and improved interface is only the former?

A: When you have to add a search function to find commands in the menu.

Dennis O'Reilly reports that Microsoft has added a search function to help you find commands in the "ribbon" that replaced the trusty menu bar in Office 2007. Sad.

Although, this could be its own innovation. Apparently you can just type Win+Y, then the name of the command, then click from the search results to access the command. But imagine, what if the process were shortened, so that you just typed a combination of keys to directly access the command? Like Ctrl+S to save a file, or Ctrl+P to print... what possibilities! The mind boggles...

Alphabet Pal - Social Conservative

Owen got a Leapfrog Baby Alphabet Pal when he was very little from one of my work buddies. It's an inchworm with light up ears that talks. When you press any of it's 26 feet, it says a letter of the alphabet and can be set to say the letters phonetically. Now that he's actually old enough to play with it he enjoys biting the ears, looking at the battery case, and occasionaly hitting the alphabet feet.

Alphabet Pal is also fun for mom and dad. We can press the individual feet to make the Alphabet Pal say phonetically H.I. H.O.N.E.Y. H.O.W A.R.E Y.O.U? It took about 10 seconds before we tried making it say F.U._.K , D.A._.N and other choice sayings (it's ok, Owen wasn't listening). However, Alphabet Pal is too crafty and clearly we're not the only people who've tried this. Once it figures out that your intention is inappropriate, it giggles and says 'That Tickles!' I guess we'll have to amuse ourselves in some other way.

Owen Bear, Owen Bear, What Do You Read?

Owen's current favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? He will preferentially pick it from a stack of books, and he turns the pages himself. Admittedly, he turns the pages with little regard to the words being read. Indeed, his pace generally requires one to read quite quickly, leaving little time for funny purple cat or blue horse voices. (Aside: The blue horse sounds like Nixon. Weird.) And once he turns the last page, he flips the whole book over, and it's time to go again. We generally go through about three or four times, though on the last pass, O will skip a few pages.