Aidan's Second Halloween

We bought a Halloween costume for Aidan a few weeks ago at a garage sale for cheap. A couple of days ago, Renee thought it was time to try it on him. It was way too big. Perhaps two years from now it will fit, but definitely not this year. So, we went out and bought a new costume for Aidan yesterday, again for a good price since there wasn't a lot of selection.

We decided on a pretty cool looking dragon outfit. It fits Aidan just fine, or at least, it probably would. We don't know because Aidan is scared to death of the dragon.

The moment he sees the costume, or even if it's brought up in conversation, he tenses up and gets that scared look in his eyes. God forbid if you actually bring it close to him (or bring him to it)....

So we decided we'd try something familiar. At school there is an elephant costume that Aidan typically likes, so we borrowed it and tried to dress him in it on Halloween... but as you can see that didn't work either.

Kind of amusing, despite the trauma we're probably causing.... and it's also horribly disappointing, as we aren't going to be able to do Halloween this year.

House Update

It's not official (still working out minor details), but it looks like we will be moving into the new house on Monday, November 10. We've been very busy packing and trying to organize a strategy for the move, and it's all been rather stressful (yet, exciting). This was the final piece of the puzzle, and once this is worked out, it should be pretty smooth sailing.

We also got word that the person who's buying our current house has finished on all of her details (had our house appraised, financing approved, etc.) and is good to close. It's all coming together.

We'll be notifying everyone about the new address, phone number, etc. in the very near future....

Strep Throat

Aidan was sent home early from daycare on Thursday because of a fever (about 102.2). Renee took him directly to the doctor's office, and they did a throat culture, the results of which we just got back: positive for strep.

Generally, Aidan is in good spirits, and hasn't really been too grumpy. However, he hates taking his antibiotic — actually hate may be too weak of a word. We may try and switch it out with another one that he might like better? Not sure what to do at this point (we are almost half-way through the doses for the antibiotic that he hates. If we start a new one, we'd have to start over from the beginning of the dosages, which could mean 7-10 days of this all over again. Maybe the new one is so tasty, the whole process will be worthwhile.... We shall see....

Mama and Dada

Aidan knows our names. All weekend long he has been practicing them. It is very darling. He signs 'mama' and 'dada' while saying them. No particular reason, other than just saying our names.... We are quite smitten.

Toddlers Have Bad Eating Habits

Lots of people ask why we are raising Aidan as a vegetarian. There are lots of reasons, one of which is illustrated in a study that was recently commissioned by baby-food maker Gerber Products Co.

Basically, by choosing a vegetarian diet, we are more likely (and encouraged) to offer healthier foods for Aidan, although we do sometimes lean upon some of the same crutches as other parents: Aidan eats his share of pizza and cheese....

We don't succeed all of the time, but generally speaking, I think we do pretty well. At least, it is harder for us to fall into the fast-food trap, if only because they don't offer anything for us, which ultimately is a healthier thing for us as a family and should help Aidan form better habits even if he chooses not to eat vegetarian later in life.

The study basically found that, as the title of this entry indicates, toddlers have bad eating habits. If you would like to read the entire story about the study, you can do so here. Here is an excerpt:

The study involved random telephone interviews conducted in 2002 that asked parents or primary caregivers what their youngsters ages 4 months to 2 years ate that particular day.

Up to a third of the children under 2 consumed no fruits or vegetables, according to the survey. And for those who did have a vegetable, french fries were the most common selection for children 15 months and older.

Nine percent of children 9 months to 11 months old ate fries at least once per day. For those 19 months to 2 years old, more than 20 percent had fries daily.

Hot dogs, sausage and bacon also were daily staples for many children — 7 percent in the 9-to-11 month group, and 25 percent in the older range.

More than 60 percent of 12-month-olds had dessert or candy at least once per day, and 16 percent ate a salty snack. Those numbers rose to 70 percent and 27 percent by age 19 months.

Thirty to 40 percent of the children 15 months and up had a sugary fruit drink each day, and about 10 percent had soda.

Shield said early diets strongly influence children, whose food preferences are generally shaped between ages 2 and 3.

Just in case you are interested in what Aidan consumed so far today:
milk (cow's and mommy's); water; yogurt; bagel; cream cheese; mango (x2), peas; tofu; broccoli; rice; fruiti bootie; two tater tots with ketchup; small piece of veggie burger; one honey roasted peanut; one slice of pickle.

Misperceptions, The Media and The Iraq War

The Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) conducted polls in June, July, and August-September 2003 of those that get their news primarily from one source. Three perception questions were asked of these people that get their news primarily from one source:

1. that evidence of links between Iraq and al-Qaeda have been found
2. that WMD have been found in Iraq
3. that world public opinion approved of the US going to war with Iraq

Do all news agencies provide accurate, objective reporting that wouldn't give misleading information to their audience? According to this study, the answer is a definitive no.

For the purpose of this study, all three of the above perceptions would be considered "false;" that is, President Bush has stated that no evidence has yet been found to link Iraq with al-Qaeda (although there is an active search to find a link); no evidence of WMD have been found up to this point (although there is an active search to find evidence of such); and the general world public opinion disapproved of the US going to war with Iraq.

Of those who had a primary news source, the following chart shows the percentage of individuals that had at least one misperception (meaning, at least one of the above questions was answered as "true"):
FOX - 80%
CBS - 71%
ABC - 61%
CNN - 55%
NBC - 55%
NPR/PBS - 23%

Conversley, here are the percentages of those that had no misperceptions (all questions were answered as "false"):
FOX - 20%
CBS - 30%
ABC - 39%
CNN - 45%
NBC - 45%
NPR/PBS - 77%

PIPA also did polls that tested if these results cut across party lines (i.e., Democrat and Republican). As long as the person received their news primarily from one news source, the percentages held up.

For those who want to see the press release of this study, you can go to the PIPA web site (this links to a PDF document).

Last Red Sox Post of the Year

Bill Simmons writes a really good column for ESPN.com's Page Two. Simmons is from the Boston area (he may be originally from Connecticut, but he did live in Boston, although I think he's in California now), and is a die-hard Red Sox fan. Every Monday, he does a column on the mail he gets from his readers. This last Monday, he got a lot of e-mail about Game 7 of the ALCS....

I thought I was over this, but reading this silly column got me all upset again. Some of the e-mails that Simmons received were also pretty funny. So, regardless of how ridiculous this whole thing is (this is all about a silly baseball game, right?), I have some tangible proof that I can still laugh at myself....

If you'd like to read the entire article, click here. Here are some of my favorite e-mails sent into Mr. Bill Simmons:

What was a worse managerial decision: Duke and Rocky letting Apollo face Drago in the 2nd round, or Grady letting Pedro face the Yankees in the eighth?
-- Jon C., Singapore

---

Rooting for the Yankees is like rooting for the house in blackjack.
-- Adam Morrow, Los Angeles

---

My son, like you, has learned from his father. But not completely. His loyalty to the Red Sox, not yet completely tarnished by years of "what ifs," compelled him to go to the game at Yankee Stadium so he could possibly enjoy the "taste of victory." Father stayed home to await the "agony of defeat."
-- Murray, Potash, N.Y.

---

I am a lifelong Yankee fan due to a long familial history in New York. Now I am back in New England living with a man who, if he had to choose between his parents and the Red Sox, would have a hard time doing the right thing. A man who believes that you and Hench are his friends. A man whose veins pump with a rich red blood not because of science but because of the Red Sox. Because I love baseball and because I love him, I have watched the Red Sox all season long. And so here it is -- the morning after the series that offered me an ulcer the size of Zimmer's bowling ball-sized head. My team won.

Am I overjoyed? Am I ecstatic? Not by a long shot. I am going to tell you something that I haven't told anyone: I was rooting for the Sox.

How could you not? When it was all over and Boone crossed the plate, I saw the tears in the eyes of the man who was sitting on the couch next to me and I wished they had been mine. More than anyone (except Cubs fans), Sox fans deserved that victory. The Yankees might have a $160 million team, but like the Mastercard commercials, what the Sox have is priceless. They have heart.

Am I becoming a Sox fan? A turncoat? A bandwagon fan? Possibly. Can I think about it first? Only true love can break your heart, and I know that most people wearing Sox jerseys these days are busy taping their hearts back together. It's something to see, that's all I can say. It's incredible to know, and quite frankly, the passion makes a tad bit jealous. You might not have as many World Series rings as those who wear pinstripes, but you might just have something there in Beantown that the Yankees will never have. It can't be bought with George's stacks of green, and it cant be won over with a Frank Sinatra song ... it's just in you. And I am beginning to wish it were in me, too.
-- Steph G., Manchester, N.H.

---

As a die-hard Sox fan transplanted in NYC, I expected to receive a constant barrage of ridicule and downright humiliation from my Yankee fan friends after Game 7 on Thursday night. But on Friday morning I unexpectedly received friendly phone calls from them and emails titled things like: "Thinking of You" and "Are You Alive?"

Yes ... this loss was so painful that they chose to care for my health and well-being over ragging me. I couldn't help but feel like Corey Haim at the end of "Lucas" when everyone was clapping in unison and cheering for him while he put on that ridiculously large jacket. Their good-natured concern for me, however, has not brightened the dark, vengeful contempt I have deep down in my soul for each and every one of them.
-- Doug C., New York

More Signs

Aidan loves his Signing Time DVDs. He will ask specifically for them by signing "signing time". He has picked up signs from the DVDs such as: cheese; cereal; candy; like; cry; and wash hands.

Now this might be one of our last signing entrys. He signing and talking so much that it is hard to keep up with him. You'll just have to visit soon to see him sign and hear him talk :)

Upcoming Visitors

Aidan's grandparents (on his maternal side) will be coming to visit for the holidays!

Grandma will be coming down from NJ for Thanksgiving. She will be here from November 27th through December 2nd.

Grandpa and Grandma Deb will be coming down for Christmas. They will be in Austin from December 19th through the 25th, leaving early the next morning for New Mexico.

We are very much looking forward to both of these visits :)

Camping: Garner State Park

We all went camping this past weekend with Aidan's friend Silas and his mom Kathryn. We went to Garner State Park, which is about three hours Southwest of Austin. It sits right at the base of the Texas Hill Country, which is very pretty, with lots of hills and valleys. Garner State Park itself has large expanses of flat land right next to large shear cliffs with the Frio River running along the edge of the park.

The weather was beautiful, if a little too warm (we should have packed some swimsuits to swim in the river). Aidan and Silas had a blast throwing rocks in the river (and so did Matthew — is this a "boy" thing? Renee and Kathryn both watch as the boys threw). We also went on a long (five hour) hike on Saturday, with Aidan mainly in the jogging stroller and Silas in the toddler backpack. All of the parents were completely exhausted at the end, but the kids seemed fine. Go figure, eh?

Most of our other camping trips have been just the three of us, and the addition of Silas and Kathryn made it extra fun. Aidan seemed to especially appreciate the presence of someone his own age, as both he and Silas had a lot of fun playing in the dirt with each other.

We did take some video, which we hope to share with you some day (but who has time to edit video?). Unfortunately, our digital camera seems to be a little sick (as evidenced by the last few pictures of Aidan that we put up in his photo gallery), so we didn't get a chance to take any pictures of our trip (other than the video)....

Aidan's List of Signs

An updated list of the words that Aidan can sign.
Total number of signs: 78

A
all gone

B
baby; ball; bath; bib; bird; blanket; book; bunny; butterfly; bye

C
candy; cereal; cheese; cold; cookie; cow; cracker; crocodile; cry

D
daddy; dirty; doll; drink

E
eat; elephant

F
finished; fish; flower; friend; frog

G
grandma; grandpa; guitar

H
hat; hear; hello; help; horse; hot; hungry

J
jump

K
kitty

L
laugh; like; light; lion

M
milk; mommy; moon; more

N
no; nurse

O
outside

P
pig; play; please; potty

R
rain; ready

S
shoes; sleepy; sit

T
teeth; telephone; thank you; throw; tiger; toothbrush; tree

U
uncle; up

V
vacuum

W
wait; want; wash (hands); water; wet

Y
yes; yummy

A Lucky Man

Paul Hughes is hot these days. The 74-year-old Waunakee (Wisconsin) man hit a hole-in-one and bowled a perfect 300 game in a 24-hour span earlier this week.

Hughes, a retired heating and plumbing business owner, sank the hole-in-one on the 149-yard fifth hole at the Pleasant View golf course in Middleton Monday afternoon. He bowled the perfect game at Bowling Green lanes in Middleton Tuesday.

[From AP News]

AL Championship Series

I don't know what Grady Little was thinking. To be sure, it is far different to be managing a game from the dugout than from your living room, but it sure seemed obvious to me that Pedro Martinez should have been pulled after the Yankees started to hit him in the seventh inning. But Grady left him in. We still had a 5-2 lead, so there was a bit of a margin for error.

Maybe you leave Pedro in in the eighth inning, get as many outs as he can, and if anyone reaches base, you take him out, pat him on the back and say "good job." That's what I would have done. But Little left him in after that first person reached base. And after the second. And the third. And then after a run scores, you definitely want to take Pedro out. But Little left him in. Runners on second and third base with one out and a 5-3 lead? Not a good idea to leave Pedro in the game, in my opinion. He's probably tired. Despite his protestations. But Little left him in. And by the end of the eighth inning it was 5-5. Oooops.

Red Sox lose the game 6-5 in eleven innings and lose the series 4-3. We should have won this one.

House Update

The option period on our house (the one we are selling) has expired and our buyer has said that she is going to be moving forward with the purchase. Thus, our house is essentially sold (yea!).

We are finalizing the purchase of our new home, and all indications are that we are going to follow through with this purchase. This will all come to fruition on November 13, the closing dates for both houses, although we hope to be able to move into the new home a little sooner (we may have to lease-back from the current owner).

More updates to come....

AL Championship Series

[from ESPN.com]

The resilient Boston Red Sox rallied just in time.

Trailing by two runs and nine outs from ending their season, they rebounded with a three-run seventh inning to beat the New York Yankees 9-6 Wednesday and set up a whopper of a Game 7.

The series is now tied 3-3; New York has not lost a best-of-seven series in which it led 3-2 coming home since the 1926 World Series against St. Louis.

New York and Boston will play for the 26th time in Game 7 — the most meetings ever between two teams in a season. Teams met 25 times in one year on seven previous occasions, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The last had been the Detroit Tigers and Philadelphia Athletics in 1953.

AL Championship Series

Ooops. The Red Sox lost yesterday, and are down 3-2 in the series. One more loss ends their season.

And the Cubs, up in their game 3-0 in the eighth inning, had an historical meltdown that allowed 8 runs in the eighth, and lost the game 8-3. Their series with the Marlins is now tied at 3-3.

So there might not be a Cubs-Red Sox World Series after all. But we all knew that ahead of time, right?

AL Championship Series

The Red Sox won game 4, tying up the series at 2 each.

The game on Monday night was rained out, which seems like divine intervention at this point, because we were able to pitch Wakefield last night (who pitched another masterful game), and then we can follow up with Derek Lowe, who wouldn't have been ordinarily available to pitch at Fenway with the "old" schedule (the Red Sox would have had to pitch John Burkett, who has not performed well in the post-season, historically). Derek Lowe has been exceptional at Fenway Park: 11 wins and only 2 loses, and an earned-run-average of 3.21. Away from Fenway (he would have had to pitch at Yankee Stadium if not for the rain-out), he's 6-5, with a 6.11 ERA. In fact, he lost to the Yankees in Yankee Stadium in game two of this series....

And, the Cubs are one win away from going to the series....

It would be odd to have the Cubs and Red Sox facing each other in the World Series, not just because of the obvious "can both teams lose" question, but because of this:

In the playoffs, or in any clutch game, many fans of the opposing Red Sox team hold up signs of "1918" to remind everyone that it has been that long since the Sox won the World Series. Who did the Red Sox beat that year? The Chicago Cubs. So, maybe, just maybe, if both teams wind up in the World Series this year, it will be Red Sox fans that bring signs saying "1918," just to remind everyone that, yeah — it was a long time ago — but we won.

Aidan's Second Haircut

I went by myself to get Aidan's haircut this past Tuesday. I was home sick and decided to take Aidan to a salon which one of his classmate's mother had previously recomended. Dora, the stylist, asked me whether I wanted his hair cut short or medium. I said medium and boy am I glad I did. It is very cute, but much shorter than I had imagined it. This shot is from right after the haircut.

AL Championship Series

By Jim Caple, ESPN.com:

With Pedro Martinez pitching against Roger Clemens, we all anticipated a great afternoon in the storied Yankees-Red Sox rivalry Saturday but no one -- absolutely no one -- expected the Jerry Springer Show to break out. As Clemens said after he and the Yankees beat Boston 4-3 Saturday in his final start at Fenway Park, "Gosh, when I told y'all it was going to be festive, I didn't know it was going to be this festive.''

Stories from Saturday's game are going to be passed down (and exaggerated) from generation to generation but the best way to sum up the day is to say that the 72-year-old [ex-Red Sox Manager and current Yankee bench coach] Don Zimmer left Fenway Park in an ambulance (somewhere Bill Lee is smiling) and the Boston police issued a dragnet for two Yankees players who allegedly fought a Red Sox groundskeeper in the bullpen.

All this transpired just because Pedro threw a pitch behind right fielder Karim Garcia's head and hit him in the back in the top of the fourth inning. And because Pedro faced the Yankees dugout and pointed to his head. And because Clemens had to be held back from storming the field. And because Garcia took out second baseman Todd Walker with a vicious late slide. And because Manny stepped menacingly toward Clemens after a pitch that was nowhere near him in the bottom of the fourth.

Oh, and because these two teams have hated each other for decades. The staggering moment from the game we will long remember however was in that amazing fourth inning, when the two great rivals were angrily storming the field, shouting obscenities and issuing threats -- and a seething Zimmer came racing around the bend, violently charging Pedro with such passion and energy that the Notre Dame Victory March should have been playing.

"There's more anger now than there was before,'' center fielder Johnny Damon said. "Before, it was mostly the media and the fans. It's a little too close for comfort now.''

So, the stage is set and everyone who can get into Fenway will be there to see what happens (as long as they can raise bail). Can Game 4 possibly top Game 3? We'll just have to wait and see.

But if the Red Sox win one of the next two games, they'll send this series back to New York. And if so, they better watch out. Bob Sheppard is waiting for them.

[full article]

The Yankees lead the series, 2-1.

House Update

We just signed the contract on our new house and will enter into our option period tomorrow. Next step: get the new house inspected!

It looks like we'll be in our new house some time around November 13.

AL Championship Series

From ESPN.com

The Red Sox must have seen the Yankees' jugular in the second inning here in Game 2 Thursday night. It was right there in front of them, fully exposed, surrounded by Boston base-runners. Another hit or two and the Red Sox would have all but finished Andy Pettitte, who could have been the next October domino to fall in a line 85 years long.

Another hit or two, and the Red Sox would have set off The Boss, heaped a pile of pressure on the Yankees. They would have taken two victories back to Fenway Park; another hit or two, that's all the Red Sox needed. They had two runners on base and nobody out in the second inning, one run already across, and Pettitte was staggered, with the top of the Boston batting order stepping up to try to finish him off.

And they missed their chance. Pettitte climbed out of that second inning hole without allowing any more runs and lasted into the seventh, long enough for the Yankees to pick away at Boston's Derek Lowe and beat the Red Sox, 6-2. The best-of-seven series is tied 1-1, and the Red Sox must try to forget about those moments when they could have pinned the Yankees and Pettitte in Game 2.

[read the entire article at ESPN.com]

AL Championship Series

The Boston Red Sox, the baseball team of choice for any self-respecting Parente, is in the American League Championship Series for the first time since 1999 and are up against that baseball team from New York. Which is, well, exciting and scary....

During the regular season, the Red Sox and Yankees met 19 times. The Yankees won 10 games; the Red Sox won 9.

But now, in the post-season, it's 0-0. Actually, it's 1-0; advantage Red Sox. They won last night on the gutsy pitching of Tim Wakefield, which now puts the Red Sox up one-game-to-none in this best-of-seven series.

The winner in the first game of the previous 33 AL championship series has won 21 of them. So, from that stand point, things look pretty good. But, the Red Sox have only ever beaten two teams from New York. That was a long time ago, and both of those teams are now in California (Red Sox beat the Giants in the 1912 World Series and the Dodgers in the 1916 World Series). History is not on our side.... But some time, some day, this all has to change. I hope.

House Update

We signed a contract with a buyer for our house yesterday, and we made an offer on a new house today. We will see how where this will take us....

Aidan Update

A note from Michelle, Aidan's teacher at daycare:

Today, while outside on the playground, I went and sat on the swing. Aidan came up behind me and tried to push me. After a few tries he did push me a little bit. Then, he stood back and started clapping.

House Update

We heard back from our counter-offer and .... our house is effectively under contract, and we begin the 7-day option period. Once we clear that, the house will be essentially "sold," with the closing scheduled to happen on November 13th.

Our next task is to focus on finding a house for ourselves! We have a couple of houses in mind, but we have not settled on any of them yet. More than likely, we'll end up in Circle C (which is a sub-division in Austin).

House Update

As some of you may know, we have put our house on the market. Today marks 30 days of waiting for an offer....

And we got one. Our first offer came in this evening and we went over it with our broker. We made a counter offer and now await the buyer's next move....

Aidan Update

Aidan had his 18-month doctor visit today. Overall he is doing very well; in fact the doctor said his language skills were advanced. According to the pamphlet that the doctor's office gave us, children of Aidan's age usually have a vocabulary of about 10-15 words, "although often the words are only about half intelligible."

Aidan is saying about 10 words and signing about 70....

He didn't need any immunizations or shots, but we did opt for the flu shot....

His stats, as of today, are:
24 pounds, 10 ounces
31.25 inches tall
49 centimeters head circumference

Increased Diabetes Risk

I heard a story on NPR this morning about the possibility of increasing the risk of Type I diabetes by introducing infants to solid foods too early. Pretty interesting.....

Abstract from the Diabetes Journal:

Using a case-control study design, we examined the hypothesis that early exposure to cow's milk and solid foods increased the risk of IDDM. An infant diet history was collected from 164 IDDM subjects from the Colorado IDDM Registry with a mean birth year of 1973, and 145 nondiabetic population control subjects who were frequency matched to diabetic subjects on age, sex, and ethnicity. Early exposure was defined as exposure occurring before 3 mo of age. After controlling for ethnicity, birth order, and family income, more diabetic subjects were exposed early to cow's milk (OR 4.5, 95% CI 0.9-21.4) and solid foods (OR 2.5, CI 1.4-4.3) than control subjects. To examine this association while accounting for the genetic susceptibility to IDDM, we defined individuals as high and low risk by an HLA-DQB1 molecular marker. Early exposure to cow's milk was not associated with elevated risk for IDDM in low-risk individuals. Relative to unexposed low-risk individuals, early exposure to cow's milk was strongly associated in individuals with a high risK marker (OR 11.3, CI 1.2-102.0). Similar findings were observed for early exposure to solid foods. These data indicate that early exposure to cow's milk and solid foods may be associated with increased risk of IDDM. The inclusion of HLA-encoded risk in the analyses demonstrates the combined effect of genetic and environmental factors.

other journals that cite this study (click to read full text):
JAMA
Diabete Journal
Pediatrics
Journal of the American College of Nutrition