Month 14

You were an awesome baby this month.

You have a signed plus spoken outgoing vocabulary of 50 words.

You understand upwards toward 100 words.

You flew on a plane - high high above the birdies you are so fascinated with.

(link to sign for airplane)

You met your grandma, your foster grandma, and your grand-mum.

It was a "grand-rich" trip for you.

I have forgotten to tell you the great things you did over labor-day weekend.

You are willing to show about 10-15 signs to people when I show you off.

You saw your first squirrel - and were quite fascinated.

Still curious about water - must teach you more about swimming.

You have impeccable fashion taste.

You initiated, selected, and requested your own sandals - Micah wasn't even looking for shoes.

They are cute, have hearts, and match several outfits in your wardrobe so well.

I am in so much trouble. At 13 months you have better fashion sense than me.

My current plan to connect with you is cars.

You are a control freak - you long to drive.

I think that I want to try to (make or hack) you a working barbie pink cute car thing.

(link to picture of vehicle)

When you start getting "bored" with it, then I will get you upgrades, or stickers, or something.

The goal is to keep you interested in what makes cars work.

If I am a very lucky man not only will you be brilliant, curious, extroverted, and having great fashion sense, but you will also be into cars.

I like cars.

Maybe - it can be a bridge.

Baby girl - I see so many teens so far away from their parents.

The world tells them to run - but that isn't because the running is good, its because the world wants to eat them. The world will eat you, chew you up and shit you out, if you give it a billionth of a chance.

I hope you give me a bridge - a place where we can connect. My job is to provide, protect, and equip you for life. Please give me the avenue to do that. I'm trying to build them - please let them be built.

Your math-mommie says the control algorithm for food acquisition is becoming highly sophisticated. You beat current automata in how well you can drive a fork to eat food.

Become capable - in the basics of eating, and the hard stuff of being successful in life and evading the predators. I love you. You are the delight of my heart - and though you will likely come to contempt that and view the very precious thing as so axiomatic that it is contemptible - you are one of only 3 beings on the planet who have that particular type of place in my heart. Do well. The great theme of humanity is screwing itself over by wasting its greatness and turning it to dung. Do not become someone who sings a part in that sad and wretched choir. Be something - someone - who is meaningful. Be great baby girl -be great.

PS: you learned to drink from a straw over labor-day weekend. It is your new preferred method for consuming fluids. You impressed me quite a bit when you discovered you were not so good at walking on uneven ground, so you practiced walking back and forth over bumps until you got it right. That shows one of the most valuable things - self discipline. I am so very very proud of you. You might be the coolest baby-girl in the whole world.

13 Months

Hey there mathbaby,

You are still quite cute.

You are dressed up in hair-ties and hair clips.

You look quite the 80's pop-star.

Even getting hair.

I get to visit on the weekends - I'm at about 100% travel.

Its hard, but better than being away for 6 months straight.

You fuss more - I guess it is the strategy that yields what works for you often enough.

It is likely enhanced by teething (that hurts) and by dad being away sometimes.

I am making your mathmom a solar oven. It is something that runs on sunlight and can decrease energy use in the house by a lot (especially when you live in the parts of AZ that are 117 in daytime and the air-conditioner MUST run all day. Why give it more work?

I am trying to make a hybrid of this:

Flat surface

Simple construction

Single reflector

Angle related to sun-angle

(NOAA link, I think)

with this:

Corner reflector

More sunlight captured

Collector area much greater than oven area.

I bought and cut dark tiles from home depot. It is taking 6 of them.

They make a great heat-absorber. They convert light to heat, but then do not conduct it out of the box.

The prototype increases temperature from 120 to 180 with about 2 square feet of area (less normal to sun) for a temperature change of 60 degrees. I hypothesize (and it might not be true) that if I put in 3x as much energy the delta-temperature will go up by a factor of 3x.

Here is a good paper talking about solar ovens! (link)

Maybe it will make your mommies life a little easier.

Maybe our bills will be lower too.

We will see.

Have a good evening mathbaby.

-mathdad.

One year

Good evening mathbaby,

You had a great birthday party. It was like an extended binge on sugar that eventually overwhelmed you.

You had a monster Jello-cake. They pour Jello over the un-frosted cake and it soaks into the bread. It changes the consistency, flavor, and sugar content. Then it gets frosted.

You had a party and your cousins, friends, and also mathmom and mathdad were there.

You got presents and everything. It was fun.

Your mathdad has noticed that you are profoundly stubborn. If someone wants to help or teach you - you resist like a teenager. This has me scared, so I am trying to find ways to earn legitimacy, and a right to share the excellent things with you.

I shared with you honey from the honeycomb. It is very sweet, totally healthy, a great way to combat local alergies, and also not allow until (note that this happened at your birthday party) not for children until they are 1 year or older.

You have had an interesting year. Its 100% of your life so far, and you have seen and done things that you didn't have the capacity to imagine just one year ago.

You started signing at 6 weeks. The only thing you could control was your tongue. This is you asking for your binkie. Aren't you just adorable??

For all your stubborn, you are a very well behaved and communicative little girl. I think that you learned early that you could get your needs met if you communicate. Maybe your mathdad had a part in that.

You love nature-walks with your mathmom. She likes the lakes and wildlife sanctuaries in the area and so do you. You love the birds. I hope that we have a budding ornithologist or aerospace engineer in you. Oh baby, be something great for daddy! Be amazing. It is easy for daddy to look in the mirror and not be able to change what he sees, and be disappointed with it. Make the choices so that when you look in the mirror, you see something great.

Good news, at least so far. Your daddy got a job up in Oregon. He makes just as much as he did at his old job, and that is good. He spends the workweek about 1222 miles away (according to Google maps walking directions). I miss your mommy and you terribly when I'm gone. Here is hoping that this job (a temp) works out for the longer term so I can keep you in a home, even if its one in the pacific northwest. They have good strawberries there - you would like them.

I have a week to show myself excellent. Next week is a big week for me - if I do great then its really good, if not - then not.

I like the line from Starship Troopers, "everybody fights, nobody quits". In our family everyone works. Mommy takes care of home and you, daddy works to pay the bills, and take care of mommy. Your job is to do well in school, and become a healthy and contributing member of society, and a successful person. Yeah that phrase has cultural baggage in it, but its also got some good paradigms for running a healthy home in a time of adversity.

Its evening right now. I just had dinner and my day is just about out of gas. I love you cute. You are a nice little light in my life and world. You and your mommy make the world a whole lot of a nicer place. You may not know it - so I have to say it just in case you don't. I love you kiddo. I'm glad that you are around.

Month 11

Hey there mathbaby,

Its been a long time since I posted.  You took your first steps yesterday.  You are balancing on your own and are so very proud of it.

You are getting so very big.  You are using words both one at a time, and you are working on two at a time.

I want to build a device that recognizes and clarifies baby phonemes.  I think we (adults) would have an easier time understanding the sounds you were trying (and having difficulty) putting together.

Your dad is trying to resist being in the unemployment pool.  I am working so very hard, and I do not see much of you kiddo.  

Final exams went well.  I can beat current state of the art in new product diffusion forecasting.. it remains to be seen by what margin it can be beat.  It looks significant (on the order of 50% reduction in uncertainty).  Too bad the company that I was interviewing with asserted a hiring freeze until december.  That makes my life difficult.

The strategies of coercion that get you to cooperate are currently variations on bait.  If your will is crossed you get mad and do not move.  If you are caused to follow carrots then you are much more compliant.

I tried playing with crumpled paper with you.  It makes noise, rolls unpredictably, and entertains cats.  It did not entertain you.  That shows you are at least above the developmental level of a cat.  That is interesting.  

We watched Akeela and the Bee again last night with the extended math-familia.  Mom, Dad, you, cousins, auntie B.  It was good.  I want you to be great, to be talented.  I want you to be the most that you can.  I hope that your adversity does not damage you but instead improves you.

I am at the cusp of being able to make serious inroads in accomplishing my quest of the three fluids.  I will let you know in the next 3 months whether or not that works out.  If it does, then your daddy has contributed significantly to making the world you live in a better place for you and for your grandkids.  If not.. we can talk about it then.

Gotta go.  I love you kiddo.

Month 9 day 16

I love you kiddo. You are so cute - even when you don't like waiting.




I found some un-uploaded pictures from the holidays and this was also very cute. Your math-cousin is holding you.


You look like you are trying to open your big blue eyes so wide that you can fit the whole universe in.


Daddy is trying hard not to be laid-off.

Month 6 day 3

Hey Mathbaby,

I was reading this article (link) , and I thought it was funny.

You have no idea how cool you are.
I played pat-a-cake with you in-utero. I felt for your hand on the surface of mathmommies belly. I patted it once. You patted back once. I then patted it twice. You patted back twice.

In mimicry you showed as a 7 month old fetus that number was meaningful to you.
You didn't know it, but you were counting before you were born.

Currently you are almost 50% your lifetime socially advanced - they say you are doing things that babies who are 1.5x your age typically do.

I love you math-baby.

-mathdad

Month 5 Day 23

This is you at zoo-lights.

You are holding a light in your hand. You wanted to take it away, and maybe put it in your mouth to see what it tastes like.

Its a privilege to show you wonders, and wonderful things.
Thank you for the opportunity.

I love you dearly, you cute little math-baby.