This was a big week. A- got her first ocular prosthesis, a scleral shell that fits in front of her small eye and supports the growth of her skull. She hardly even fussed, and has been very much her usual happy self. Her left eye is still smaller than the right one, which is normal. It's a gradual process. I'm sure there'll be bumps along the road. People in the Facebook support group have shared a few stories about dealing with infection or lost prostheses. But that's just part of life, so – onward!

We took A- for an MRI in order to follow up on the results from her abdominal ultrasound and blood tests. The waiting room had a toy scanner, which was probably really useful for helping older kids become less afraid of the procedure. It turned out that it's a small version of a CAT scanner, and it's made by Philips. They call it a kitten scanner. It even comes with RFID toys that bring up relevant animations. Neat. =)

Tita Gay and Tita Myra drove up from the US to meet A-. We had fun chatting over lumpia and Vietnamese bun. It was so nice to hear about how Tita Gay had been helping my parents through some difficult times, and how Tita Myra was coping with her own health challenges. We ended up with too many desserts, but that's okay. It just meant that we got to enjoy custard pastry (galaktoboureko, I think), egg tarts, strawberry shortcake, and banana fritters throughout the rest of the week.

I didn't do any consulting, but that's okay. It's a little mindboggling to think that this was my first week without a couple of hours of consulting since April, when A- was just two months old. Next week promises to be a little lighter medical-wise (aside from the echocardiogram under sedation on Monday), so I might be able to check back in. I've got a couple of add-ons on the go, and I'm halfway through prototyping another.

I've been spending most of my time focused on A-. Aside from the big health-related milestones this week, it feels like I'm spending a fair bit of time nursing her or helping her sleep. It's all good, though; past Sacha decided this was the best use of my time, and the reasons still stand. When I don't want to distract her by talking to her, I read on my phone. I've gotten through a few ebooks on the Montessori method, looking for ideas for early childhood education. I like the idea of helping her develop her senses and observation skills, and the practical life skills will be good too. The usual Montessori exercises are for kids who are a little older (maybe 2.5 years?), but there are opportunities to apply the principles even earlier. My brain still feels a little fuzzy from time to time, but I'm looking forward to getting better at helping her learn – and learning tons in the process, too.

I'll eventually want to have more structured notes for observations and plans related to A-'s learning. I think Teach Your Baby had some suggestions for keeping a notebook, although it might be interesting to see what I can sort out with computers, tagging, my digital index cards, Emacs, and whatever scripts I write. I'll probably start with adding more detail to my index cards, and making some kind of table to remind us to cover a variety of activities. I'll figure out how to cross-reference stuff later.

Observations from this week: In the backyard, she's been able to pick up small pine cones in either hand, when we bring them close to her in our hands. She can pass a teething ring from one hand to the other. She can easily grasp and mouth cucumber sticks and carrot sticks, and she seems to prefer using fewer fingers instead of using a full-finger grasp. Lots of vocalization, especially in the evening. It's not crying – it sounds more chatty, although if it changes in tone a little, that seems to be a reliable indicator that she's getting a bit tired.

In other news, W- has been really hitting it out of the park in terms of cooking: pesto using the basil from our planter boxes (gotta keep trimming them!), tarragon chicken, pad thai, bun… He's been posting videos of A- in our Facebook group for baby updates, too. So awesome.

Next week: cardio, then reacquiring Philippine citizenship, then taking A- for more vaccines and following up with the pediatrician regarding results. I'm not sure I can go to the Peer Nutrition workshop on Monday, but maybe I can make it up some other time.

Blog posts

• Weekly review: Week ending July 15, 2016
• 2016-07-18 Emacs News

Sketches

• Journal
  • 2016-07-19a Week ending 2016-07-15 -- index card #journal #weekly
  • 2016-07-16b Saturday -- index card #journal
  • 2016-07-17a Sunday -- index card #journal
  • 2016-07-18b Monday -- index card #journal
  • 2016-07-19b Tuesday -- index card #journal
  • 2016-07-20a Wednesday -- index card #journal
  • 2016-07-21a Thursday -- index card #journal
  • 2016-07-22a Friday -- index card #journal
• Parenting
  • 2016-07-16a Things that are under our control or influence, and things that are not -- index card #stoicism #philosophy #parenting
  • 2016-07-17b Helping A- learn -- index card #learning #teaching #parenting
  • 2016-07-17c Notes to support A-'s learning -- index card #learning #teaching #parenting #notes
  • 2016-07-17d A- observations -- index card #parenting #observations #a
  • 2016-07-18a Plans for A-'s learning this week -- index card #a #plans #parenting #teaching
  • 2016-07-19c Thoughts on what I've been learning about the Montessori method from books -- index card #parenting #teaching #montessori

Focus areas and time review

• Business (0.1h – 0%)
  • Earn (0.0h – 0% of Business)
    • ☐ Earn: E1: 1-2 days of consulting
  • Build (0.0h – 0% of Business)
  • Connect (0.1h – 100% of Business)
• Relationships (4.7h – 2%)
• Discretionary – Productive (9.8h – 5%)
  • Drawing (5.0h)
  • Emacs (0.3h)
    • ☐ [#A] Do another Emacs News review
  • Coding (0.3h)
  • Sewing (0.0h)
  • Writing (0.0h)
• Discretionary – Play (2.9h – 1%)
• Personal routines (23.6h – 14%)
• Unpaid work (69.7h – 41%)
  • Childcare (59.3h – 35% of total)
• Sleep (57.3h – 34% – average of 8.2 per day)