robin's first word!

You know you're in trouble when your kid's first word is, "Uh-oh!"

I was wondering what her first word might be. I was guessing some form of Griffin, because she hears it many times a day from both Andy and I. I also thought that something like Mommy or Daddy might be good candidates, or maybe peek-a-boo. I considered "bee bo" (which is the tiny hippo way of saying "belly button") a long shot but in the running, given how often we read that book.

She learned, "Uh oh!" from Andy, who says it every time she drops something off her tray when she's eating. I guess I forgot about the things we say a million times a day without realizing it.

it's a good busy

June tends to be a hectic month. Coming right after the always-busy May (home of Andy's birthday, Mother's Day and the first long weekend of the summer), June plays host to my birthday, our anniversary, my brother's birthday, Father's Day as well as the end of the school year which brings my mother's gloating giddiness about having nine weeks off. And of course, June is also the month when I finally get around to cleaning up the garden, which should have been done in May but never seems to be. Turns out having a baby around to feed and water kind of kills my interest in doing it for plants. Oh well, the perennials are looking after themselves.

And of course, it's also the month of getting ready for July: Folk Fest, holidays and weekends at the lake. This year the end of July also means (a) Robin's first birthday, which leads to (b) Andy going back to work.

I love summer!

disconnect

When Robin was born, Andy and I were introduced to a whole new world, one that includes diapers, strollers, car seats and very small clothing -- all things we'd never thought about before. It had never even occurred to us that anyone might think about these things. Other than Kirk and Miyuki's daughter Lisa, we hadn't spent a whole lot of time around infants, because there just weren't any in our immediate families, and most of our friends were still childless.

I don't think this was so much of a problem in the past. Families tend to be smaller now, and more spread out. It's not uncommon for people to live hundreds of miles away from their parents and extended families, and to see them only occasionally. As a result we don't see each others' kids as much and therefore go for years at a time without holding a baby, watching a toddler throw a temper tantrum, seeing a preschooler learn to print her name, and so on. We don't have the experience with young kids to know what is normal and when, other than what we remember from our own childhoods.

I think this is one thing that make parenting harder now than it used to be -- the lack of contact with young kids and the resulting disorientation around childhood milestones. There is a tendency to push kids to reach developmental milestones sooner, to learn new skills faster and be more "advanced" than is reasonable for a given age. And why? For what benefit?

the nhl is not coming to winnipeg

Every time an NHL team gets into financial trouble, the media in Winnipeg stirs up the pot about how maybe the team will relocate to Winnipeg. This bugs me to no end. The NHL in its current state is not viable in Winnipeg. We are too small a market and there just isn't the corporate base to finance a team. While the NHL would be much more viable than it used to be now that there's a salary cap, it's just not going to happen here.

Having said that, the NHL in any incarnation is not viable in a whole lot of the markets where it's currently operating. Gary Bettman is either a fool if he truly believes that the Predators, Coyotes and Thrashers are ever going to make money, or he's a flat-out liar to keep saying that these franchises are doing well. Who does he honestly think he's kidding?

The main problem is that people in these markets are just not that into you, Gary. They don't grow up playing hockey, they grow up playing baseball and football. They don't get the game. They have never been passionate about it, and despite your trying to jam it down their throats for a decade, they still aren't. This is a square peg in a round hole -- it just ain't gonna fly.