Thanksgiving

Late afternoon on Thanksgiving, we took a walk around a lake in our neighborhood. Here's Callen feeding the swans in the lake and a few other pix from our walk and Thanksgiving. It was a gorgeous late afternoon!

Belated Birthday Pix

I finally downloaded pix from Callen's birthday and her party. Everyone had a great time at the Kids Gym.

Movie Time

A friend of ours took Callen out today for a few hours, so Bo and I took advantage and went to see a matinee today. We saw Four Christmases. It was cute but not a great movie. However, when you don't get to see movies often since your child was born, a cute movie is ok. Plus, it is a Christmas movie! I love going to see movies!

Awake at 4 AM

You'd think I would be able to sleep in a little this AM. I don't have to be at school early to survey for the XO project, I don't have class today, and I'm planning to work at home. But, n-o-o-o-o! I woke up at 4 AM thinking about all the other things I needed to do today to get ready for tomorrow and things I want to work on today.

Let's hope it is a productive day today!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Why and Why Not?

Over the past few days Callen has started asking 'Why not'? and 'Why'? when we say various things. For instance, you need to pick up your toys Callen. Why Mama? Or, we can't go outside right now Callen. Why not Daddy?

I'm not sure she always completely understands the explanations that we give her as she'll sometimes ask again, why not?

I wasn't prepared for the Why and Why Nots yet. Anyone else experiencing these?

Potty Training

I was at a moms' night out Sunday night. We were each talking about potty training issues we've been having. For some reason Callen doesn't want to poopy on the potty, but prefers a pull-up. She's very good about using the potty to urinate, but at home at least she resists using it for pooping. She does not have this issue at school. I was talking about this Sunday night.

Well, Monday night and last night she all of a sudden starts poopying in the potty! I have no idea why, what clicked, etc. but all of a sudden it is ok to do now. Let's hope I haven't jinxed it by blogging about it : ).

I wonder if Callen will look back one day and wonder why in the world her mother had to disclose on a blog her pooping status updates : ).

Webmetrics

I went to this interesting presentation this afternoon at the NSF PI conference on webmetrics. In a hopefully soon to be funded project, we've proposed to do some webmetrics - i.e., determining where people are going, what they're doing, how long they stay in various activities, etc. when online. There are lots more possibilities for 'monitoring' usage than I anticipated. I look forward to receiving some additional material from the presenter and learning more about this topic.


I think one of the more interesting things is being able to compare what they report doing vs. what they actually do.


Who is watching where you go online, what you do, how long you stay in various places, etc.? And, what do you think about these activities?

How Would You Fill in the Blank?

I'm at NSF for a PI conference. After the keynote during dinner, people could ask questions. Someone made some comments and then gave the following analogy.

A typewriter is to a computer as a school is to a ______.

How would you respond?

A Busy Weekend!

We had three 3 year old birthday parties this weekend - one of which was Callen's! So, a busy weekend for us. Callen had a great time at each of her friends' parties and also at her own.

For the first time we decided to have a party somewhere besides our house. We did it at a local kids' gym. The kids had a chance to run, jump, slide, etc. and burn off some energy. They all seemed to enjoy it. I'm glad!

After Callen's party we went to a party for one of her classmates. It was a western, cowboy theme and there was lots for the kids to do there too. I'm tired and I wasn't the one running, jumping, dancing, limboing, etc. : ).

I promise to post some pix later this week when I have a little more time!

Here's to many more fun birthdays!

Halloween 2008

Our neighborhood isn't conducive to trick or treating due to the hills and wooded lots. So, this year we spent Halloween with some friends in a nearby town. Callen wanted to go as a butterfly this year. She had a blast trick or treating with her friends. They also had a fog machine; the kids really enjoyed playing in the fog.