Hug First, Ask Questions Later

Yesterday, a blog I read asked the question "What are your kids teaching you?". That's an easy one for me. Harper is teaching me to hug first and ask questions later. 

She's a pretty smart kid. But just when I start to believe that she might already be smarter than I am, she does something to remind me that I'm still on top. For instance, this morning while I was giving her a bath, in the blink of an eye, she grabbed the bar of soap and took a big bite of it. It was caked all over her teeth. She didn't care one bit. And that, my friends, is why I am still smarter than my 15 month old daughter ... for now. 

What are your kids teaching you?

Road Trip

We are going to Cincinnati this weekend! I'm really excited. Although, I'm a little concerned that most of the things that I want to do during our visit revolve around food... Harper, on the other hand, is super excited to see her little buddies.  

Ava - Her dad took this picture.

Harrison - Sometimes he likes to sit on Harper. 

Introducing Lincoln - the new kid on the block. 

And we're pretty excited to hang out with Ava, Harrison, and Lincoln's parents too. And all of our other Cincinnati friends for that matter. So, if you're going to be around and want to hang out, give us a call!

The pictures of Harrison and Lincoln were taken by Kelly. I don't officially know Kelly, but based on these pictures and the fact that she's friends with most of my Cincinnati friends, I think we'd get along just fine. Check out her site. 

15 Months

Today, Harper is 15 months old! Can you believe it? I can't. She's not a baby any more - definitely more of a big girl than a baby. She's beginning to appreciate the finer things in life. Last night, she attended her very first symphony concert. The university I work for partnered with the Nashville Symphony to provide a free outdoor concert. It was wonderful. Harper loved it. Although I'm not sure that she understood that everyone was clapping for the musicians and not for her. Here's a picture of her dancing to one of the tunes. 

PT Cruisers Caught In The Act

Since I posted my theory on PT Cruisers, many people have told me their stories of inappropriate Cruiser behavior. Keep them comin'. Send me pictures. I'll post them. Here is a picture I took yesterday in my parking garage at work. I think it speaks for itself. I actually saw this lady (attempt to) park. I didn't take the picture right then (that would have been awkward), but luckily the car was still there when I left for the the day. Sorry for the poor picture quality. I took it with my cell phone. 

Random Monday

A couple things for today:

I worked out on Saturday for the first time in a long time. It kicked my butt. I tried to do the same type of workout that I could do about 2 years ago when I was exercising on a regular basis. Bad idea. I used this medieval torture device:

By the time I went to bed last night, I could barely move my legs. Walking is excruciating. Sitting indian style is out of the question. This is why people don't work out. 

On another note, Rob and I watched a funny movie last night - Role Models. I should tell you that this is not a kid's movie. The language is horrible and the subject matter is at times questionable. However, I did learn a fun fact while watching it: 

In the next sequence, his girlfriend informs him that they call it a venti because it's 20oz of liquid. Then she breaks up with him and hilarity ensues. 

Rain

I love this series. If you don't know what this is, you should. Go here to find out more. 

When the Science Hits the Fan - Rain and Sleep

It's rainy here today. I actually like rainy days, especially when I have the time and ability to take a nice rainy day nap (which doesn't happen very often anymore...). I, like most of you, get sleepy when it rains. In fact, I'm tired right now. I was wondering this morning if there is a scientific explanation to why people feel so sluggish when it rains. So....I looked it up. And what I found may surprise you. 

There haven't been many scientific studies done on how weather affects sleep. I found one from a group of Psychiatrists at the University of Rochester. They asked 43 people (who were students at the University) to keep a detailed sleep diary for 105 days. Then they tried to correlate how well the students slept with 9 meteorologic variables - temperature, dew point, snow depth, precipitation, barometric pressure, wind speed, duration of daylight, visibility, and moon phase. Briefly, they found that high barometric pressure (associated with a sunny day), low precipitation, and lower temperatures were associated with spending more time in bed and having better quality sleep. This is opposite to what I would have expected based on how I generally feel when it's nice out versus when it's rainy out. 

I don't know what all of this means in the big scheme of things. The group from Rochester admits that their study has some limitations. In addition, all of the comments that I found on sleep discussion forums disagreed with the results of their study and tended to side with the argument that rain = sleep. I guess, more scientific experimentation needs to be done to get a definitive answer to this one. Let me be the first to volunteer if they need someone to take a nap.