Schierer Space

Since the Central New York weather has finally cooperated to produce a significant snow fall.^[1] In fact, prior to this event Baltimore, MD, was actually ahead of Syracuse for most snowfall in a US city this year. ^[2]
After piling all of the snow from the driveway next to the driveway, the temptation to carve out a fort and some tunnels was overwhelming. With Nate’s ‘help’ we constructed a pretty decent snow park with canyon-like paths, a tunnel, a fort and a slide.

Here are some highlights:

No snow park would be complete without a snow-bunny… ^[3]

More fun in the snow in Nate’s gallery.

More pics of Rachel added too.

1. We’ve been getting steady amounts which have amounted to very little significant accumulation. This was finally a storm that dumped a significant amount over a few days. [↩]
2. A population of over 100,000 if I recall the bracket. [↩]
3. Who has since melted enough that it lost its head. Apparently this was the cause of some significant distress for one of Nate’s playmates. [↩]

One more in the gallery.

So we’re starting to settle into a bit of a rhythm with Rachel now. She’s pretty much sleeping in the early morning (this morning from like 3-8!), but this means she’s anything but sleeping from about 9PM until 1 or 2 in the morning. That’s a bad time for mental health.

Regardless, she’s still a sweetie.

And lest you think we forgot our other photogenic child…

(For those of you following on Facebook, realize that K has set up her notes to grab our blog feed automatically. Rather than harass you with all of my (Chris’) crazy rantings we’ve narrowed it to only grab the family update posts… like this one.)

Just like last year, the Rosamond Gifford Zoo is running their winter at the zoo photo contest. The pictures have to be taken in January, and for somewhat obvious reasons we didn’t make too many trips to the zoo this month!
We did manage to get out on January 16th, and for some unknown reason it took me until today to process the images.

With only one trip, I wasn’t particularly blown away by any of the images. You can see the class of the pictures from the trip in the 2010 Winter at the Zoo gallery.

Here are the two I submitted and the runner-up I chose not to. Was there another in the gallery that’s your favorite?

Another tough day

Wading in the sunlight

Runner Up: Thoughtful

K & R are doing great. K is pretty much full mobility, but perhaps moving a little slower than she otherwise might. I expect that will be true for quite a while yet. She complains occasionally of joints “moving back where they used to be”.
R is sleeping in longer stretches and is generally pretty mellow. It’s a simple life: eat, sleep, cry until you can eat again.

Here are some more pics to help you through the day…

Although we don’t keep our house very cold in the winter, it is chilly for a baby. Here’s an example of how R copes with that.

People say all babies look like Winston Churchill. For some reason this shot invokes more of a James T. Kirk for me.

Life is tiring when you’re ten (days):

More pics (including baby hands and little lambs) in the gallery.

We’ll be doing pictures with “Mousie” this time.

Bonus awake picture to show you how dark colored her eyes are.

Sleeping in the hospital:

Sleeping at home:

Hands, nose and toes:

Big brother:

K tries to get a picture of R sleeping on my chest…

Of course she starts crying…

Shhhhh….

Now what?

As always, more pics in the 1st month gallery.

As I will no doubt have my blogging license revoked soon for failing to post cat pictures, here are a series capturing the reactions of our feline family members:

The first time Rachel cried loudly:

A direct inspection. (They’re braver than last time, I don’t think they came out of the basement for several days after Nate’s homecoming.)

(This pic also shows the modern Mom’s accessories on the night stand: iPod touch for feeding and diaper log^[1], water bottle, lotions, cloth diaper as accessory rag, etc.)

Shadow doesn’t seem to approve:

The cats are missing sleep also:

K says that last shot is dying for a Cheezburger caption.

1. Yes, there’s an app for that. Several actually. One for contraction timing also. [↩]

Some friends of mine have recently taken the plunge into the world of digital SLR cameras. For those who aren’t sure if they really want to go there, please take a look at my dated but still relevant series on choosing a digital camera.

For those of you who have that new shiny complicated D-SLR, here are few pieces of advice in approximate order of importance. Most of them involve buying stuff (of course!) so the approximate damage to your budget is given. This is probably going to get long, so here’s a summary list and the fold.

1. Take some pictures. ($0)
2. Always use the camera strap. ($0)
3. Get extra media. ($10-30)
4. Get an extra battery. ($30-50)
5. Buy a UV filter for your lens. ($10-30)
6. Make sure to backup your images. ($30-50)
7. RTFM (more than once!) ($0)
8. Get a bigger bag than you think you’ll need. ($30-75)
9. Take a class and/or do some research. ($0-100)
10. Get decent editing software. ($0-350)
11. Accessorize! ($25-2500)

(more…)

Still no sign of our little girl… well there’s a sign, but K’s pretty much hoping it won’t be attached to her any more.

In the mean time we’ve been doing our best to enjoy the heart of winter in CNY.

More pics in the new 2010 gallery and in Nate’s gallery.