MonsterFool

We captured Sammy singing the French song “Alouette” on video about two months ago, back when she was obsessed with French children’s songs. “Alouette” is a bird-plucking song, though Sam doesn’t realize that. It’s a useful song for learning and reinforcing body parts, and so you see Sam tap her father’s head (la tete), neck (le cou), and nose (le nez).

It’s come to my attention that our bilingual friend Benjamin enjoys hearing Sammy sing, so I’m posting this one just for him. (Desolee, Benja, that the picture quality is so poor…)

ImaginingSleep.com

Remember how I’ve been alluding to a “project” that I started working on in January of 2007? This is it: ImaginingSleep.com. I’ve decided that it is done enough so I can start to talk about it, and ask for feedback.

First, some background:

As you may know, when I left my last academic job (to start chasing then baby Sammy) I was in the midst of a book project on sleep and dream in 19th-century France. This was the book that would have gotten me tenure, presumably, and I already had a publisher interested. After we moved to the Bay Area and I started to feel out what my new life was going to be like here, I found that I didn’t want to pursue that particular book anymore, but I didn’t want to drop the subject of sleep and dream entirely either. When I was teaching at F&M, I had the chance to develop and teach an interdisciplinary course on the subject. I loved it. I loved being able to explore beyond the boundaries of my academic specialty. Friends were saying, “Why don’t you write a general book on sleep and dream?”

That was a thought.

However I wasn’t really sure what would anchor such a book. As a way to think about that, I’ve created this website. It’s an online course, but also a resource site, as well as a place for me to keep track of what I’m thinking about and reading.

It’s also now the home of my podcast!– “The Somniloquy.” These are audio lectures, written specifically for ImaginingSleep.com. Podcasting has been a fun new medium for me to play with. There are 3 podcasts published to date, with many more planned, once AC (my producer) and I figure out a regular work flow.

So THAT’s what I’ve been up to. If you have both inclination and opportunity, I welcome feedback– about the website and the podcast– content, usability, problems you encounter, etc. This is all very much a work in progress and the podcasting in particular is a grand experiment. The first 3 episodes are rather rough around the edges, but hopefully we’ll get better at it.

One bug I’ve already learned about is that the “Click to play” on the podcast page does not work. “Download audio file” does seem to work. The podcast is not yet indexed on iTunes, as we’re having trouble with the meta data that iTunes seems to want to grab from the website. Anyone with knowledge or experience with publishing on iTunes, please contact me, and I’ll forward the info on to my SysAdmin. Yes, it’s the same guy as the Producer

Remember how I’m a sucker for the photo retrospective?

April 2006:

April 2007:

April 2008:

Three years, three ice cream cakes, and look how much Sam has changed. AC, of course, looks the same as ever. (How does he manage that?) The April picture gallery has been updated, and you can find it here.

This afternoon, Sam and I were hanging out in the backyard. I said, “So what do you want to play now?”

She said, “I have a new game.”

I said, “Oh good! What’s your new game?”

She said (really fast with big hand motions): “My new game is I THROW the ball to you and you throw it back to me, and the Frisbee tries to get it, and then the tricycle goes all the way down to the other side and says ‘Whoaaaaa!’ That’s my new game.”

She looked at me expectantly.

“Okay,” I said. Let’s play.

It didn’t work exactly the way Sam described it (that pesky tricycle just wouldn’t cooperate) but hey, when the name of the game is Imagination, I try not to let Reality get in the way.

Long time no blog… which doesn’t mean there hasn’t been anything interesting to write about. No, 2008 has been altogether too “interesting” at times. First the lowlights:

Camus died.

I got my first ever speeding ticket (for going 44 in a 25-mile zone).

Someone stole the catalytic converter from our car, while it was parked in front of our house.

The hard drive of my laptop died and I lost all my data, including several stories I had written for Sam, and everything I’d written for my project since September. If you are reading this now and you haven’t backed up your computer files lately, heed my hard-earned advice: back up your data!

And the highlights:

Despite the setback, I am very close to releasing my “project” to the world. Stay tuned.

We had a couple of East coast visitors in March, and got to frolic in the beautiful Bay area with them.

The beautiful Bay area: after a rainy, dreary January, spring has been lovely.

Sam. She is 2.5 years old today!

AC will provide the narrative in the month 30 newsletter on his blog, so I’ll give you my Sam update in pictures:

At the Richmond Marina, about to fly a kite.

“I can do it all by myself!”

Hanging out at the playground.

Tea and wine tasting with Molly Bear.

Easter egg hunt by the Eiffel Tower

Watering the pansies.

The rest of the March pictures are here.

Around 2AM, Sammy woke up crying last night: “I have to go to the potty!” AC managed to get her there in time, and she was cheerful and chatty, reminding us that she gets a “big sticker” for her toilet learning chart. Minutes later, she was back in her crib, sound asleep. I wish I could say the same for me and AC. While I am thrilled that Sam is making potty progress, I hope that last night’s interruption is not going to become the norm for a while. She still needs substantial help getting her clothes off, etc. I am loathe to return to the fragmented nights of her first year of life. But still, go Sam!

At some point in the wee hours of the morning I had a dream about Camus. He had returned to us. It turned out that he didn’t die at the Vet’s, but had somehow escaped. He came back healthy, gorgeous, and happy. Purring and affectionate. We were living in a different house and I was astounded that he found us. But I realized that the yard of our new house was not enclosed (the way our current yard is). I had to make a decision about whether to allow him to be an indoor/outdoor cat again. I was nervous that he might go outside and away again, but I knew that I couldn’t keep him imprisoned indoors again. I decided to let him go, and figured that if he came all this way to find us in a new house, he would return again.

This morning I said to AC, “I had a really bittersweet dream about Camus last night.” He looked at me and said, “So did I.”

In AC’s dream, Camus had returned, but it was only for a short while. Somehow AC knew that our kitty would have to go back to being dead after his brief visit.

This afternoon, the Vet called and informed me that Camus’s remains are available for us to retrieve. The tech who called even pronounced his name correctly.

I’ve spent the better part of my professional life focused on sleep and dream. Last night’s events reminded me of why that is so.

Today while we were out grocery shopping, Sam and I stopped into a local candy store to buy some fudge for her father to give to him on Thursday. I told her it was a surprise, and that we wouldn’t tell Daddy until Valentine’s Day.

Since AC was working from home today, he joined us for lunch and the following conversation ensued:

Dad: How many stores did you go to this morning?

Sam: Three!

Dad: Three? Really? (He looks at me. I say nothing.) So you went to Trader Joe’s, and Lucky, and…?

Sam: Another store.

Dad: Which one?

Sam: I don’t know.

Dad: What did they have there?

Sam: People!

Dad: How much were the people? (Looks at me. I still say nothing.) Mommy? (He gives me a pleading look–trying to suss out whether he’s entered the realm of Sammy’s imaginative world. Sadly he has not. There WERE a lot of people at the candy store.)

Mom: I’m just going to remain quiet on this one.

Dad (Eyes gleaming): Sam! What did you buy at the store?

Sam (Excited because she can answer this question): We got some fudge for Daddy!

Dad (Roars in laughter): That’s GREAT! I love fudge.

Sam (laughing too): I know!

Mom: (laughing in spite of herself): Happy Valentine’s Day.

One of Sam’s great-aunts gave her this William Shakespeare doll, sold by the Unemployed Philosopher’s Guild. William (as he is known in these parts) is a favorite of Sam’s and was quickly integrated into her menagerie of plush friends.

The other day, Sam and I were playing a game where she would hide under a blanket and William would go “look for her.” Mostly to amuse myself, I had William speak these lines as he lifted up the blanket:

“But soft! What light through yonder blanket breaks?
It is the East, and Samantha is the sun!”

To which Sammy replied, sitting up indignantly under the blanket:

“No, Mommy, I’m not a son. I’m a DAUGHTER.”

This is Sammy’s favorite Camus story. She’ll say “Mommy, talk about the teeny little salsa cat?” And I tell it something like this:

One day, when Camus was a teeny little kitten, Mommy and Daddy left a big bowl of spicy salsa out on the dining room table. And little Camus jumped up on to the table all by himself, and do you know what he did? He stuck his little head in the bowl of salsa. Mommy and Daddy were astonished because kitty cats don’t eat salsa, especially not spicy salsa… but little Camus licked the bowl clean! And so he became the salsa cat.

Actually, AC and I are not sure how much salsa he really ate. We don’t recall. We do remember that as a kitten he went nuts for tomato products– salsa, and V8 juice especially.

The funny thing is, from the time SHE was a baby, Sam has always loved tomato products too. It must run in our family.

Here’s the earliest digital photo I have of Camus– circa 1996, so he would have been a year old.