Oct
15
One day
Filed Under Uncategorized
Pause
Oct
7
Are crocodykle and ephelentay. In that order.
Sep
20
In the now
Filed Under Uncategorized
(No, that’s not a typo, I meant “now”, not “know”)
I frequently take Morris out to a plot nearby that’s undeveloped and so constitutes one of our “wild” areas in the neighbourhood. It gives me a chance to show him bugs and plants and rocks in something approximating their natural state, and as a bonus he gets a little exercise and (hopefully) sleeps a bit better.
And I like it. I love walking through wild, overgrown ground looking at the small details. And I realised recently when we took a walk like this that as my job has changed I’ve become more and more focused on next week, next month, next year. I spend a lot of time thinking about the future and so it’s nice to have an activity that forces me to focus on the now. What that insect is building now, what that plant looks like now, how those rocks have settled now.
Aug
30
When a picture says more than words can
Filed Under Uncategorized
Aug
1
Sometimes the Internet makes me snort milk out of my nose (metaphorically speaking).
Jul
31
A full duplex boy in a half duplex body
Filed Under Uncategorized
Recently Morris has developed a habit of trying to continue a conversation with us with a dummy (American: pacifier) or bottle in his mouth, turning an already challenging exercise in translation into one in futility.
He hasn’t yet realised that at his current level of development his mouth is a unidirectional stream.
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.
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