Sam slept last night pretty much without interruption. A couple of times I heard her cry or whimper, but it was never long enough to warrant us getting up to check on her. At 6:40 AM she woke us, crying pretty hard, and so we all got up for the day. First nap was at 10:30AM and she fell asleep quickly and with little …

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It begins. After a year of helping Sam fall asleep (by nursing, rocking, singing, and shushing in various combinations) , AC and I decided that we had better teach her to fall asleep without us sooner rather than later. To be fair, Sam’s sleep has been tolerable over the past two months. She usually sleeps 9-10 hours …

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For the past couple of years, my husband and I have taken to naming the houses we lived in. The house we bought in Cville was “Chez Nous Nouveau.” The place we rented in Altoona on Juniata Gap Road was “Juanita.” And the house we bought in Altoona was named “Chateau Neuf (9)” because the number (512) is 2 to the 9th …

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We entered this picture in the BabyGap Casting Call. The online Sam album is now mostly updated, with pictures from June, July, September, and October (the August pics are mysteriously AWOL, but we are closing in on their whereabouts).

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Finally! Sam’s month-12 newsletter is up at ChoicyWhiteBoy.com.

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Last Saturday, AC and I walked with Sam in the jogging stroller down the Ohlone Greenway to the El Cerrito Plaza. The walk took us about an hour. After a not-so-quick-trip to Trader Joe’s, we decided to take the BART one stop back to our neighborhood. While we waited on the platform for the next train, Sam got to do …

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Last Friday I took Sam to the Berkeley Bowl— this is a market that at first reminded me of Whole Foods in Charlottesville. Nice breads, great selection of cheeses, bulk grains and beans, and outstanding produce. I have finally smelled a Meyer lemon. We tried a Persian cucumber. And there were more heirloom tomatoes …

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Sometimes the joy of reading is all in turning the pages. We’re reading Rainforest Colors by Susan Canizares and Betsey Chessen. This is the book our pediatrician gave Sam at her 12-month checkup. .

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For the past year AC and I have been taking short video clips of Sam, but we had not investigated how to make them available for viewing on our blogs. YouTube makes this very easy now. And IMovie makes it fun. Voilà! I give you Channel Sam. This first clip is very rough, as I’m still figuring out the various editing …

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When I was a kid, I loved Charlotte’s Web. Thinking about Charlotte’s sacrifice for Wilbur still makes me a little teary. And in the past, I have gone to great lengths to avoid breaking an intricate spider web while on hikes in the woods. But not in our back yard. Our little yard in El Cerrito is a frequent gathering …

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