Anthropometric facts

Fact: Boo's third toe is longer than her other toes. According to shoeworld.com, this occurs in only 3% of people. I'm hoping her other mutant powers won't manifest themselves too soon. Her fingernails are sharp enough without them being made out of adamantium. And she already yells loudly enough without super-lungs.

Fact: Boo's head is large. She is in the 80th percentile for head size, despite only being in the 60th percentile for weight and 50th for height. She gets this from her father, who also has a large head.

We both need large hats.

Fact: Boo has two teeth (see previous picture).

Fact: Boo had curly hair when she was born.

Then it fell out.

Now her hair is straight.

A Shinier Mailman

I am a bad blogfather for not posting about my daughter until she is six months old. Nevertheless, here she is:

I won't be putting her name here (not that it would be hard to figure out, but she might like a little deniability when she's older), but an anagram of it is in the title. Other good anagrams for her name include Hi Animal Remains, Mini Alien Ashram, and His Anemia Marlin.
Despite these useful alternate names for her, I will be calling her Boo, which is what I call her most of the time anyway.

Spoon Nose

My wife, who has decided to be called Eleanor of Aquitaine on this blog, and I went to get her 20-week ultrasound this morning.

As you can see, the baby has inherited the famous family "Spoon Nose" from me, so called because it is handy for keeping a spoon on your nose.


You may have already met some other members of my family. We are descended from the 10th Century knight, Sir Roger the Spatulate, who brought spoons to the British Isles. We also have in our lineage the proud Viking raider, Leif Ladleson, who could hang a spoon from his nose and both of the horns on his helmet while pillaging. The sight brought terror to his enemies and made him the leader of his village. Finally, there is our pioneer ancestor, Amanda Shovelboffin, who crossed the plains to Utah with her 14 children in the 1850s with all of them hanging spoons on their noses.

It is indeed a proud lineage. Oh, by the way, the baby is a girl.

Daddy Blog

Since my wife is pregnant but (understandably) doesn't want to turn her longtime blog into a "mommy blog," I'm going to try doing a "daddy blog."

The baby is due in December, so I will talk about things I learn or find interesting in this process.

Today is my dad's birthday, so I've been thinking about what I liked about his parenting. I remember he used to have his kids help him milk the cows and feed the calves, even when we were pretty young. I don't think he did it primarily because of the little help we were able to provide. I think it was much more because he wanted to spend time with us, teach us how to work, and earn a little spending money. He would wake us up at 3 or 4 in the morning to help milk cows. We were silly kids and didn't always get ready right away like we were supposed to, but I remember he was patient with us and played and joked around with us while he got us ready to go out. My dad is great.