That is one amazingly beautiful kid, Plei.

Thanks! We're kind of in awe of her over here. She's pretty good natured, too, so we feel like we hit baby lotto.

We've been co-sleeping with Li'l Sphere since he was born and are trying to transition him to the crib now that the holiday travelling is over. We haven't yet made it all the way through a night.

Lillian's been sleeping in an Amby in our room since she was born, but when she figured out how to keep herself up, she started coming into the bed more and more frequently. Then she got her first cold last month and wouldn't sleep anywhere else. It would be less of a problem if our bed wasn't a full. We'll be upgrading to a queen this month, which should buy us some time before the eventual transition. My goal, such as it is, is for her to sleep solo by her birthday.

I’m fine swimming in pools. I get weirder about lakes and oceans. Lakes because I fear various animals and oceans because I have nearly been drowned numerous times by powerful undertows (and because of animals). Although I’m a native Californian who learned to swim very early and who grew up with a swimming pool in her back yard, nature is another thing entirely. When I was being held under by that enormous force of water, it was scary as hell. I knew there was nothing I could do but pray it’d let up soon.

I'm not phrasing this right.

I think you're phrasing it exactly right.

Okay, here's sort of where the discussion went (with my friends). I think swimming is very race related. Not playing in the pool, but swimming, actual swimming even in the deep end is more common with white people.

Pleats assume a small waist and a flat stomach.

I've always had a marked waist/hip differential, but I've never had a flat belly. Pleats are the enemy.

I think swimming is very race related. Not playing in the pool, but swimming, actual swimming even in the deep end is more common with white people.

Interesting. Being Jamaican, I can't really comment, because it's different there.

We'll be upgrading to a queen this month, which should buy us some time before the eventual transition.

We have a queen, but Li'l Sphere's become quite the little animated sleeper. He wakes us up constantly through the night and loves to turn perpendicular, which leaves us no room at all. It's nice when he wants to snuggle up to you, but not so good when he flails around and smacks me in the face at 3 am.

When I was a camp counsellor there was a distinct urban/suburban split among the swimming kids and it often cut along racial lines with the white kids being suburban and more swimmy and the black and latino kids being more urban and less swimmy.

The whoozit abuse picture of Lily is AWESOME. She has so many interesting faces.

Hil - German WWI uniforms: [link]

Thank you! That was exactly what I was looking for, and now I can place this photo as somewhere between 1915 and the end of WWI. Still not sure who it is, though -- that would be my great-grandfather's generation, but I'm not sure who in my family was in the army.