• Kaizen
  • W- got an undercabinet light from IKEA for the kitchen. Nice upgrade. We experimented with adding lights over the sink, but we didn't find a setup we liked.
  • We talked about learning more about photography and making good use of the lenses we have. It makes sense to focus on doing that this year.
    • It was so cold at the playground. I was glad to have brought a camera with physical controls, since I could use it even with my gloves on.
    • I experimented with focus bracketing. It doesn't work so well with moving animals, but it's handy for relatively still things.
  • Journal app
    • I updated my React app to use the Material UI toolkit and use functions instead of components.
    • I switched to using docker-compose. I also mounted folders instead of files, since the file contents weren't getting updated due to changed inodes.
    • I added a navigation bar and an edit form to my React journal app.
    • I added picture linking to my journal. I learned the React way of keeping the state in a parent component and passing the props downwards.
    • I exported my journal entries for easy reading on my phone.
    • I learned how to use MongoDB to save and retrieve entries.
    • I added an “Other” field to my journal.
    • I added the ability to delete journal entries.
  • I read “Fair Play: A Game-Changing Solution for When You Have Too Much to Do (and More Life to Live)”. It echoed some of the things I've heard other parents talk about. I'm pretty okay (W- does so much!), but I want to make sure W- doesn't feel overloaded. I like its four rules: all time is created equal; reclaim your right to be interesting; start where you are now; and establish your values and standards. I also like the point it makes about keeping concept, planning, and execution together as one person's responsibility for each task. At the moment, my Unicorn Space is coding, and I'm getting better at giving myself permission to spend time on that.
• Us
  • Cooking day! I made sticky rice, which turned out all right (even the dried shrimp). I tried a new ice cream recipe, and decided that the ratio of 1 cup cream to 200ml condensed was too sweet. I made fudge with leftover condensed milk. The baked ham was a bit overcooked but not burnt. Decent cooking day.
  • I sewed a dress for A- out of red robot flannel. I guessed the length of elastic for the casings at the neckline and waist, and I left myself a bit of extra in case she wants it widened.
• Field trip
  • We met up with Melissa and H- at Riverdale Farm. A- liked watching the horse get groomed. She also enjoyed watching the pigs play, and she was very curious about why one pig licked the other pig's behind. She liked watching the sheep, too.
• Gross motor
  • A- pretended to be a can of milk being dispensed down a chute. She rolled and rolled down the crib mattress.
  • Luke threw up on the platform, so we needed a ladder to get up there to clean it. Naturally, A- wanted to climb the ladder too.
  • A- swung herself on the big kid swing.
  • A- dropped a stuffed toy from the tower. We declined to pick it up for her, so she figured out how to pick it up with her feet.
• Fine motor
  • A- wanted to play the Boo and Aaa ticket game again.
• Sensory
  • A- fidgeted a lot. I wonder if her hair is bothering her… She doesn't want us to ask about it, though.
• Language
  • “Speaking of…”
  • “I escaped pants. Now I'm over into the summer wear.”
  • “‘Vale' to you, Mama, ‘vale.'” A- said goodbye in Latin.
  • “Merry Christmas. Good night. Thanks for visiting.”
  • “Did you capture my mo(tion)?”
  • “Why doesn't J- see her little sister more often?”
  • A- was very interested in spelling A*'s name. She noticed that the letter E was missing, and spent some time puzzling over where it would go. She eventually figured it out when I pointed out that there was another label with A*'s name on it. She looked at that and promptly put E in the correct place.
  • I tried showing A- Anki flash cards based on a Reddit post I came across lately. She got some words very quickly (cat, A*), while other words took a while. I ordered a bunch of reading resources, and I'll probably change the deck to be mostly based on those books and her other interests.
• Music
  • We played with the sounds that rubber bands made.
• Art
  • A- wanted me to rebuild the Santa LEGO thing.
• Self-care and independence
  • A- cut her own breakfast sausage with a fork.
  • A- kicked me out of her room so that she could sleep.
• Eating
  • I cooked salmon and yu choy today. A- liked it.
  • A- liked biting the heads off the anchovies. W- took pictures, and A- mostly followed his posing instructions.
• Sleep
  • Woohoo, A- slept from 10pm to 8:30am without waking up! She had needed a second settling down.
  • A- was a bit clingy at bedtime. Eventually I got grumpy too. I stayed in the room with her and she cried to sleep (not intense crying, though). Might need to work on it some more.
  • I set a timer for 15 minutes of focused time. After that, I hugged A- good night. After I left, she cried for about 5-10 minutes, then fell asleep. I think it's hard for her to sleep while I'm there, so we just have to get used to this.
  • A- had a hard time settling down to sleep. After my first goodbye, she cried and cried. I checked back in with her, read her a book, and left again. Eventually, I refused to read her another book and told her that it was okay for her to be bored. After I stepped out of the room, she cried for about five minutes. I think it will be easier if she just gets used to my being okay with her crying.
• Emotion
  • A- played with H-. Every so often, A- took a break by asking W- to read to her. It's interesting to see her go between being social and being more focused.
  • It's surprising how powerful the fear of missing out is. It got A- to finish the vegetables, get into the bath, and so on.
• Household
  • We went to IKEA to check out beds. We couldn't decide on a bed frame, but A- liked the duvet cover and canopy on one of the display beds, so we got a twin duvet, the cover, and the canopy.
  • I was getting a little tense about A-‘s cooking experiments. W- reminded me that an egg is just an egg. I calmed down and remembered that buying lots of groceries is just like tuition for raising a cook, so it's all good.
• Social
  • We found out that A-s current favourite babysitter will be scaling back her availability. Need to try a few more people again!
  • Lola felt lonely. She said, “The house is too quiet.” A- said, “Our house is noisy. You should transfer to our house.”
  • We emailed thank you notes for the gifts that A- received.
  • We met up with Melissa and H- at the playground. H- and A- sometimes had trouble taking turns, but for the most part, they got along very well and were able to manage playing together and playing apart as needed. A- had so much fun, she invited them over afterwards.
  • We visited Joy and J1 even though we hadn't coordinated before dropping by. The kids all had fun. J1 was fascinated by the camera and wanted to use it everywhere.
  • Although A- got a little jealous around H- at the farm, she still wanted to invite them over to our house afterwards. We had an impromptu dinner party with a good spread (lumpia, scrambled eggs, bitter melon, stirfried veg, carrot sticks). Melissa and I even got to read a little.
• Pretend
  • A- waited patiently for her turn with the photo cut-outs at IKEA. She wanted to play in the indoor play area there too, but it was full.
  • A- pretended to take a spam phone call and had a long conversation.
• Other
  • A- decided against trying the play area at IKEA. Instead, she ate a pizza slice while W- shopped for lights for the kitchen.
  • A- was proud of her camera. She took a few pictures with it, enjoyed feeling it dangle from her wrist, and mentioned it several times to Melissa.

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• 2019-12-30 Emacs news

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