Maia's 12 of 12

Another day in the life of Maia with a camera (culled down from 104 photos).

Other posts in this series: Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | Part VII | Part VIII | Part IX | Part X | Part XI

Recent Events Day

• I finally got around to ordering physical prints of our best online photos, which had been piling up since pre-pandemic. I used Amazon Photos which has a decent upload interface and is reasonably priced for small numbers of photos.


• My company was acquired by Accenture Federal for some ridiculous price. No changes for me in the near-term although things always do change after something like this, regardless of how many times "business as usual" is chanted during the integration.


• I got a new Purifier to Level 100 in Grim Dawn and it's so much fun that I'm having trouble getting the motivation to try other classes.


• Ian is now 10.8 pounds.


• Maia started summer camp four days a week and each session is 90 minutes longer than her pre-preschool. She gets frazzled towards the end but hopefully that will improve since she definitely enjoys the program.


• The lawn is finally into the summer phase where I don't have to mow it every 108 minutes.


• Maia and I have two Minecraft worlds, Maia Town and Rinurbia. We've built a castle with a pumpkin patch in the courtyard and a golden bell on a golden pedestal that you ring when you want to go inside. She still never wants me to go underground because I fell in the lava that one time. While she sleeps, I've been taming the lava flows and constructing a water elevator for safe passage to the depths.


• We've ordered from Blackfinn Ameripub 3 times now and the food has impressed us every time.

What are you up to?

Ian Week #6 Battle Report

Ian is six weeks old and exactly twelve pounds (he now outweighs the cat). He recently discovered how to swat hanging toys in the Enrichment Jungle and deigns to spend a few minutes lying there on his back without complaints. Otherwise, he strongly prefers being carried around by someone as he grunts his way through gas, poops, and life in general.

What's Maia Up To Day

Maia is a month away from turning 4. She still tells elaborate stories that convert her inner monologue into an outer one for hours as part of her falling asleep ritual. Here is an excerpt from Saturday night.

There's 8 hot dog packs and 6 bun packs. Or there was a... Mipha bought 4, Mipha bought 2 of...Mipha bought 4 buns. Mipha bought 4 buns. 2 for, 2...2 of 4 of buns...and 8 hot dogs and 8 buns. That's what they did. They got 2 of the same bun packs.

Mipha says, "Look! The bag has salmon that looks good." That was funny... Anna and Elsa said, "Look! Look! That's Frozen Fruit Snacks! Frozen, frozen fruit snacks." And Olaf said, "Also, the wind feels it. Because it also blows around." There was a tornado of leaves. It's just a ... whooosh whooossh whooosh. Elsa goes, "What are you doing over there?" Mipha said, "Guys, what does this say?" Olaf says, "Chocolate pie?" Mipha says, "My favourite dessert...".

Revali was also knocked on the door. For the first time in forever, a bunch of, a bunch of... Revali had a bunch of blupees in his cart. Revali picked out suet cake. There was suet cake at the store. The first time when he went there. So the guy put suet cake in there. So soon they went to Costco. At Costco they bought swimsuits.

"Any blue around here that I can play with?" said Blupee. The blupee was so high up that Revali's head was up. Sometimes Revali heard blupees yelling in his ears when they were hungry for their breakfast and dinner and lunch so Revali bought earplugs. Orange earplugs. They called 'em HEAR-Os. I can't hear anything with HEAR-O's. Olaf had a blupee. Hans had macaroni so he said, "Macaroni!" and everyone bought the macaroni. Olaf bought blupee-shaped macaroni so Anna got batteries. They had lots of stuff on their list.

On Sunday, Maia also created her first truly solo drawing without any adults offering suggestions or help.

Stuff in My Drawers Day

For comparison with Maia's house picture from Wednesday's post (drawn at 3 years 11 months), here is one I drew on my mom's birthday when I was 3 years 7 months old.

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

7:04 AM: Showered and ready for the day.

7:13 AM: Bagel for breakfast.

9:36 AM: Pancakes for second breakfast.

9:43 AM: Enjoying my pancakes.

10:15 AM: Time in the Enrichment Jungle.

10:53 AM: Reducing tank refill time from 6 minutes to 1 minute. "You did it!"

11:59 AM: Tammy spends the morning with us helping out.

2:43 PM: Family nap time after a delicious lunch from Blackfinn Ameripub.

4:47 PM: Afternoon Minecraft time.

5:36 PM: Not sure we can top this bird. Or this castle.

6:14 PM: Dinner of leftovers.

6:55 PM: Summer bugbites, bunnies, and flowers for the vase she made at summer camp.

Ian Week #7 Battle Report

Ian has made it to 7 weeks and is somewhere over 12 pounds at the moment. Having his weekly milestone tied to a Sunday is very logistically convenient, because I can also remember to do other household chores based on multiples (deep clean the bathroom on week multiples of 4, wash the sheets on multiples of 3, etc.)

He is staying awake and alert much more now but still doesn't like being on his own for very long. He also has trouble with digestion and spends a lot of time grunting and whining about the air in his belly.

Just yesterday, he learned how to social smile!

Review Day: Minecraft (Switch)

Minecraft is the ultimate "dig a hole on the beach" simulator and a perfect game for me to play with Maia now that we've completed Breath of the Wild. She can sit on the couch while I navigate and direct me to build things or explore the world. We don't really go into caves because she thinks I'm going to fall in all of the holes (I usually do), so I spend my evenings on Ian duty mining the ores needed to build all of the bunnies she wants (dad slave labour). Shown below are the Great Peeing Bird statue and Bunny Hill.

I last played Minecraft on the PC in late 2010, and it hasn't changed much. Getting started is as opaque as it once was. The interface and blocky graphics are the same. Crafting is much simpler as you can look things up in an in-game recipe book. The "killer feature" for me that pulled me back in was the ability to play on a big TV screen several feet away. In my waning days on PC, I was regularly getting migraine headaches from staring at the giant pixelated graphics up close. Now, I can pick it up for short bursts of creativity without worrying about ruining the rest of the day.

At the moment, this is a perfect game for my playing profile -- I can pick it up, make progress without much thought, and drop it when kid naps ends (or even play it with the kids). Someday I'll want another Overwatch but for now, this is a perfect outlet for the few brain cells I have left after the rest of life.

Final Grade: B

Ian Week #8 Battle Report

We've reached 8 weeks!

Between work, Maia, and Ian these days, time is a surging torrent of molasses that prevents me from itemizing every single change that Ian has undergone. I'm looking forward to the mythical day some time in the future where the two of them will play together while I play 500 games of Hearthstone in a row. Until then, it's sufficent to say that all is well -- Ian continues to grow and has not shrunk, and everyone is still alive.

Maia's Drawings Day

Not yet 4 and Maia already draws like a 4.5 year old. I'm preserving these here so I don't end up with 20 overflowing file cabinet in 20 years.

I feel like side profile is an advanced figure skill.

I think we all have belly buttons in this picture, or maybe those are our flies. Ian is the little one.

Data Day: A Typical Day

This chart shows a typical summer day in the life of our family. The red overlay shows who's keeping an eye on Ian at any given time.

Ian Week #9 Battle Report

Ian has officially crossed the two month mark and received his first cocktail of vaccines. He's in the 60th percentile for weight and height, and the 97th percentile for head size, probably because everyone keeps telling him how cute and clean he is.

He weighed 12.8 pounds on Friday and 13.4 pounds on Sunday and has thrush (the fungus not the birds). He is more comfortable hanging out in the Enrichment Jungle and has figured out that swatting his hands will make things jingle.

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2021 album.

• Events
  • Maia started four weeks of summer camp at Trinity Church on T 6/1.
  
  
  • Drove my Dad around to doctor's appointments all day on W 6/2.
  
  
  • Rebecca and Maia went to the annual work picnic in Olney Park on F 6/4.
  
  
  • Tammy came over for dinner on T 6/8.
  
  
  • Had the Smiths over for a joint birthday party with melted ice cream cake on S 6/19.
  
  
  • Rebecca turned 38 on T 6/22.
  
  
  • Grandma Uri came over for a visit on F 6/25 - S 6/26.
  
  
  • Maia started Sports Camp at the Sportsplex on M 6/28.


• Projects
  • Real Life: Survival Mode


• Consumerism
  • Enjoyed getting back into Grim Dawn but have moved on now. Playing Minecraft and Ori and the Will of the Wisps with Maia.
  
  
  • No amazing new TV shows or movies this month. Still rewatching The Shield.
  
  
  • No amazing new music this month.
  
  

June's Final Grade: B, it was better last month when I was off work