We Ate Eight Eights at Eight on 8-8-08

Last Friday presented a once (maybe twice) in a lifetime opportunity- we ate 8 eights at 8 on 8-8-08. Juliette was ready for breakfast, as you can see, and probably wondered what all the fuss was about.

Sarah and Kate thought the whole thing was fun and we hope that they will always remember it. You know, it is the sum of so many small and seemingly insignificant things that can amount to the memory of a great childhood. Thank you to George for being such a great dad. He always has great ideas (he was the one who remembered about 8-8-08) and takes great pains to create memories for our family.

Juliette did not actually eat 8 eights, just one was enough for her.

Here is George perfecting his 8-shaped pancake technique.

She is almost one!

Juliette is growing up- she really started walking this week. Here is a funny story about her and her pacifier.

George is now typing.

I am sick of the stupid pacifiers. They don't help a baby after they are old enough to pick it up and put it in their mouth. I have all sorts of other opinions and theories about pacifiers, but that is not the point of the story. I have always maintained that babies/children are smarter than people give them credit for. When you have babies whose genetic material was contributed by Amy, they are way smarter than most people give them credit for.

Even though Juliette is not talking, I think she understands fully everything we say. So I told her it was time to throw away the pacifiers. I said "You are a big girl now, you are walking and you don't need your pacifiers any more. It is time to throw them away. You can do it, or I can do it for you if it will be too difficult." The two pacifiers were on the table, and I took her over to them. Gideon was right there, too and said she would put it in her mouth. I expected that, too, and she did.

She picked up the other one and I walked her over to the trash can. I told her to throw it away, and she put it in the trash right away. Then she looked over at me and reached for it. I pulled her back and told her that "...it is in the garbage, and once we put things in the garbage we don't take them out." She didn't reach for it again. Then I tapped the one in her mouth and said, "Throw this pacifier away now." She took it out of her mouth and put it toward the garbage, then flicked it back in her mouth. I asked her again and she moved it closer then put it back in her mouth. I asked her one more time to throw it away, she looked at me, then at the garbage, then at the pacifier and slowly put it in the opening of the garbage can, but did not let go. She held it close to her, but did not put it back in her mouth.

"Throw it away, Juliette. If it is too difficult for you, I can throw it away for you." She sat there for a second and very very slowly reached for the garbage and gently placed the pacifier in. She looked at it for a second, then looked over to me and Gideon and smiled very big. She knew what she had done and she was very pleased with herself. I was pleased too. She hasn't had a problem without it since, she has gone to sleep fine without it and I think she sleeps better. With Sarah and Kate, we just threw them away and had a rough couple of days. I like this apprach better. By my tenth kid, I am going to have this parenting thing down solid!

George is now done typing.

Well, I've been a little busy....

OK. I know it has been forever since I have updated this blog, but I have been working like a madwoman. This is a picture of my lab hood where I have been running three simultaneous syntheses in order to finalize the parameter ranging for my new drug manufacturing process. Most people churn out maybe one of these syntheses per week, tops. Last week, my chemistry was successfully demonstrated on 2000 gallon scale and the resulting yield increase/price drop will literally save thousands (probably hundreds of thousands) of people. No one has ever been able to do this before, anywhere in the world. I have been working on this since my original breakthrough in the fall of 2006. I am now ready to party and also very ready to take on another research project.

Finally, a new haircut!

I have been suffering with lame, long, boring hair for months. I just could not decide what to do with it. I finally did something about it over the weekend, so here is a pic of my new hair.

Go Grizzlies!

Congratulations to Sarah and Kate, who have both been selected to be members of the Jr Grizzlies Cheer Team! They worked hard last week at practice and went to try-outs on Saturday morning. They both did a great job and we are proud of them.