Yes, we've been feeding her lots of forbidden things like nuts. She hasn't exploded yet (surprise, surprise).

Pru’s visit to the doctor contained the last set of shots for a while (whew!) and more than the normal amount of wiggling while her measurements were taken. She’s still healthy and growing steadily. Need proof? We’ve got that.

Height: 33 in. (85th percentile)
Weight: 24 lbs. (50th percentile)
Head circumference: 48 cm (90th percentile)

If everyone is really lucky, we’ll get around to uploading some more PruTube videos from Aunt Nellie’s graduation this past weekend. Stay tuned (but don’t expect them before this weekend is over).

There are several new videos up on Prutube.  They document Thanksgiving, Christmas and all the holidays in between (and a few that happen after as well).  We are quite behind in our documentary updates, clearly.   Happy viewing!

Pru had a check up this morning.  Everything went smoothly aside from the measurement-taking and the vaccination-giving.   Fortunately, cookies still work as a ameliorative gesture:

Pru decides inoculations are a fair trade for Nilla wafers

Pictures are nice but we know why you are all here — you want measurements.  Without delay:

Height: 32.0  in (90th percentile)
Weight:  22 lb 14 oz (50th percentile)
Head circumference:   47.5 cm (90th percentile)

A note to all the would-be suburban dads out there:  when you go to explore a strange noise in your garage or basement or the like, where there’s a remote but actual possibility that you may be about to face down an intruder, don’t do what you’ve seen every TV or movie character do in similar circumstances  (when they don’t have a firearm or a baseball bat) and arm yourself with a large chef’s knife “just in case”.

The reasons are twofold:  one, you will feel ridiculously hackneyed, and two, even if there is an intruder, the knife will do you no good.  If the intruder has a gun, then you’ve literally brought a knife to a gunfight, which works about as well as the figure of speech suggests.  If the intruder is unarmed, the knife will be a hinderance you’ll have to discard, since you probably won’t want to stab an unarmed man (even if he is an intruder) in part because (depending on where you live) you probably don’t have the legal right to.  The knife only does you any good if you’re facing down an intruder armed with a knife (or some other non-firearm weapon – perhaps a mace, or a tree branch) but even then, the odds are good the intruder has better knife-fighting skills than you.  It’s just an incentives issue.

We *may* have spent part of the day yesterday (when the ice giant Ymir visited Albany and bedecked the land with a frosty dollop, leaving us trapped inside, huddling together for warmth) unwrapping Christmas presents early.  We did this because (a) it doesn’t make much sense to drag everything down with us to Rhode Island, where we’ll be spending “calendrical Christmas,” just to have to port it back with us; (b) Pru had already partially unwrapped most of the presents, anyway; and (c) I have very poor impulse control.  Photos of our premature Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Saturnalia can be found here.

Has any three-word phrase ever so perfectly encapsulated a man?

A friend from college (who now has her own blog, by the way) chided me, ever so gently, to update my blog more often.  So, here you go, Windy. 

A check-up to start her second year?  No problem, Pru says.

Pru thinks that being one is fun

Height: 30.0  in (73rd percentile)
Weight:  22 lb 10 oz (71st percentile)
Head circumference:   47 cm (90th percentile)

Happy Birthday, Prudence!

We started the day with some fun present-unwrapping:

Then Dad went to work, and Mom and Pru had a fun day at home.  When Dad was done at the office, we went to Alexi’s Diner, a local place that Pru likes and where the staff likes Pru.  Dinner was nice, and when they found out that it was Pru’s birthday they gave her a little jello with a candle in it (and us a free slice of cake and coffee) and sang “Happy Birthday” (the copyrighted version, no less!) for her.  Then we came home and gave the baby a small slice of the ice cream cake we’d been planning on giving her, which lead to the usual first birthday mess.  Pictures will follow, probably tomorrow.

Halloween has come and gone, and Dwyeropolis is still laden-down with sweet, sweet candy.  We may have slightly overestimated the number of trick-or-treaters who would brighten (or darken?) our lintel.  And by “slightly”, I mean “by an order of magnitude”.  So, the bleak loneliness of my existence has been laid bare.  But on the plus side, more candy corn for me! I suppose that what you’re actually interested in is pictures of the Pru-bear in her Halloween costume, rather than my Werner Herzog-esque whining about the endless dissappointments that life brings our way.  And so, without da further a-do: Live, from Queen Maud’s Land… Pru and Dad in their Halloween costumes.  (I went as Judge Ralph Winter!) And our Jack ‘o Lantern: Holycraaaap!  Strong Bad!