Jun
28
Morris spent a lot of time running around yesterday excitedly shouting what sounded like “dingo!”. After a fair amount of guesswork we finally figured out what he was saying (he’ll tell you if you guess wrong so I suppose this amounts to a brute force search).
He was actually trying to say “didn’t go!” which is very endearing, a little heart-breaking and requires some explanation.
Morris has recently (since the arrival of Milo I think) become a little more attached to dad, and has started getting upset when dad disappears in the morning to go labour in the salt mines. Mom has been explaining to him that dad has to go to work (which he pronounces like a mangled version of wok). He’s latched onto this “work” thing and become a little anxious. On weekends when he loses sight of me in the house he’ll often come running through shouting “daddy, wok! daddy, wok!” looking very upset, obviously expecting to find I’ve disappeared.
I took Friday off and during one of these episodes one of us must have reassured him by saying something to the effect of no, daddy didn’t go to work.
So basically, he spent yesterday running around excitedly “celebrating” the fact that dad “didn’t go” to work.
Jun
18
Almost without exception Morris goes from sleeping to fully awake in a matter of seconds. He’ll often literally sit bolt upright and demand to be taken downstairs immediately (”down!, down!”) where he’ll begin playing in earnest. And for the most part this happens an hour or so before I’m in any state to appreciate it.
This morning, however, both the boys were up at about 4am and as a result Morris slept in. And when he did wake up he was in no rush to move. And instead of his usual demands to get going he clearly wanted to lie in for a bit, and he wanted me to lie in with him (”daddy, lie. daddy, lie”).
Unfortunately I had an early morning call and my day meant it wasn’t practical to take it from home and then head into the office and so I couldn’t really afford to stick around. Or maybe I could. I regret not deciding to simply be late for the call, or at least to take it from home.
It sounds cheesy, but there you go.
Milo is reaching that point that crept up on me with Morris and has done the same this time around. You’re so focused in the first few weeks on feeding and changing and helping them sleep and their general state of helplessness that you’re not expecting it when they start to engage. Milo is smiling, and is fascinated with a mobile friends bought for Morris. And he’s looking at everything he can and moving his little brick of a head about with what little control he can manage at this early stage.
And between the pair of them, and work, their Dad is a walking zombie.
May
25
I got back a few hours ago from dropping Helen and James (my in-laws) at the airport. They’ve been with us for just over two weeks and will stop in London for about two more on the way back, to break the journey, extend their holiday and spend some time with Joshua, their second newest grandchild (Milo took pole position just recently).
Seattle put on its best show for them, the weather has been glorious, and the last shows of Spring are still about so it’s a mixture of colourful flowers and lush greenery, especially in our garden and at the parks we frequent. I seem to have spent a lot of time trying to convince Helen that Seattle had its down side, and I realise in retrospect that a lot of that was for me. A vain attempt to make leaving Seattle a little easier.
There’s no question we’ll miss it, and we spend a lot of time questioning whether or not leaving Seattle is ultimately the right thing to do. Much of that is weighing up pros and cons. Friends and family weigh in heavily in favour of Cape Town, but Seattle has a lot going for it too, not least of which is safety. Which means ultimately we’re weighing family (and friends) against family (i.e. Morris and Milo).
And with Claire’s sister in Cape Town having their second child recently, and two sets of close friends due in October (with boys to boot) the friends and family side of the scale is looking particularly weighed down.
Work both helps and hinders. I’ve had a lot of fun and while the Seattle office certainly takes some getting used to, once you’re settled it’s got its own pleasant quirkiness. But it’s also been a pretty stressful year and all signs point to another one in front of me. Dilbert’s often on the mark, but it’s not usually this accurate.
Part of the challenge has been the fact that we’ve never treated this as a permanent relocation (because it’s not intended to be) and that changes how you behave and in particular how you think about things. It also makes some things harder. For example, I believe that to manage a team well you need to realise that your team consists of people, not numbers in a spreadsheet (that’s actually pretty obvious once written out like that). It’s much easier to do this when you’re not aware in the back of your mind that this time next year, if all goes to current plan, you’ll be back in Cape Town.
And of course with Morris and Milo we’re now two-on-two, which will make the next year interesting regardless of other factors. Not complaining. Just sayin’ 
May
6
Hello World
Filed Under Breeding
Morris’ little brother, Milo, arrived today, on schedule and without any complications. We’re awaiting Morris’ reaction to Milo when he comes home, and in particular when he realises Milo is here to stay.
So Mom’s in hospital with Milo and Dad is flying solo with Morris.
May
5
We just shipped your cancelled order
Filed Under Idiocy
A couple of weeks ago I ordered something off a South African online retailer, specialising in books, not unlike my current employer at some point in the distant past.
Yesterday they emailed me to tell me that, sadly, they had cancelled my order because the item was out of stock. This would have been nothing more than unfortunate had two other things not happened prior to the arrival of that unhappy news.
First, they charge my credit card.
Second, and this is the bit I really can’t wrap my head around, they email me last Saturday to tell me they had shipped my order.
They will never see my custom again.
Apr
23
I normally stay away from this topic for various reasons, but I stumbled across a marvelously concise piece of logic I had to share. It’s a quote by Stephen H. Roberts.
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
Apr
20
The role of the observer
Filed Under Breeding
Morris is either a startling new mind in the world of Physics or a crackpot-in-waiting. At least that’s my current interpretation based on his fairly obvious feelings regarding the role of the observer (him).
YouTube (one of his addictions) is a case in point. It will often upset him for it not to be playing but once started he’s happy to run off an play elsewhere. It’s not so much that he’s experiencing it that appears to be important. It just needs to be happening. Somewhere. Preferably somewhere he can check.
Other examples exist. He is developing a habit of issuing explicit (as in detailed) instructions for tasks he wants his parents to issue. An example is filling his small toy pick-up truck with water (which has to be done with water at the right temperature, from the right container and at a speed that falls into an extremely narrow band). Once you’re doing (are doing, not have done) it to his satisfaction he’ll often turn around and play with something else, stopping only to make it clear that you’ve stopped and should resume (in case you hadn’t noticed).
Apr
18
Is My Brute the next Facebook? We appear to have been reduced to communicating via one line status updates or 140 character tweets (gah, I hate that word).
Maybe, like the alternative Earth in the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, we’ll be reduced to communicating by biting one another violently on the leg, only we’ll do it virtually as our muscles slowly atrophy and we waste away in front of our laptops.
Yes, I realise I’m the last one who should be making statements like that.
Apr
4
Untitled
Filed Under Uncategorized
There are moments, patches here and there, when the sunlight breaks through and a quiet settles over the world. In these moments it’s clear that everything will be alright, that everything is alright, with the world.
And then you drop into the next layer of clouds and the wind of daily life, work, all those things that need to get done, whips up around you and consumes your focus.
It’s both easier and harder with a kid (soon kids!) because they make those moments of quiet richer, and because they make you fight the wind that much harder.
Mar
30
Video killed the radio star
Filed Under Arbitrary
While we’re in Seattle we’ve taken advantage of our fast Internet connectivity to keep current with favourites like The Daily Show (pirates, us? never!), which we usually watch while eating dinner in the evenings (it’s that or surf the web, either way conversation only happens as a last resort).
However, every now and then we exhaust our queue of short-enough-to-commit-to-over-dinner video content and recently have started dipping into my collection of podcasts.
It occurred to me while listening to a BBC radio 4 comedy podcast, huddled round my (soft) laptop speakers that this is probably not all that different to what it must have been like in the heyday of broadcast radio, when families would sit around the speaking-box in the evening listening to a favourite show.
I find that oddly reassuring.
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