Franklin's been enjoying daycare, and I love reading his teachers' write-ups.
Thursday 20 September
ate chili & beans w/ground turkey, carrots, cornbread, and apple sauce
did a good job today; fed himself lunch; good job Franklin!
Franklin had a great day. He sat on the small matt and played with a soft stuffed animal and rattles. He likes shaking and looking and smiles. Seemed so happy :)
Tuesday 18 September
tried a few bites of mac & cheese, mixed veggies, and cherries
Franklin had a good day. He sat on the floor, and played with musical toys and piano with his friend Theo. They were talking and smiling and sharing toys. Seemed to be having so much fun!
And of course he and I have been enjoying our time together at home:
Dad's current favorite shirt:
Finding restaurant highchairs are usually a bit big for our little guy, but he seemed into it for a little while on our last lunch outing with Pete:
All right reader, have a great week!
Well, Merrica was wondering how the Workshop went, and that's inspired me to post a few bits of text for your reading pleasure today.
First, I've posted my handout from last week, containing a few juicy quotes that I think together suggest that Aristotle might view large systems and patterns (my particular concern in this project is with climate) as operating not at random or even as byproducts of individual things pursuing certain purposes, but for a purpose of their own:
I got some tough questions, but that's for the best in the long run. Fun, friendly group... and the prof. who hosted things invited us all to his house to try his homemade wine: very Oregon :)
My interest in this project stemmed from my fascination with Aristotle's brief but mind-blowing discussion of natural selection (note: Aristotle died thousands of years before Darwin was born). Just so happened that that brief discussion was mentioned in the issue of the New Yorker that I was reading on the train to Oregon.
Great article/book review (by Anthony Gottlieb, former editor of the Economist, speaking of Merrica) about new research (or should that be "research"?) in evolutionary psychology, and I highly recommend it.
Which makes me feel funny about quoting the ending, but it's just too clever to leave unquoted: Barash muses, at the end of his book, on the fact that our minds have a stubborn fondness for simple-sounding explanations that may be false. That’s true enough, and not only at bedtime. It complements a fondness for thinking that one has found the key to everything. Perhaps there’s an evolutionary explanation for such proclivities.
Full article here.
My other train reading was, of course, the Times, where I read a fascinating review of the new FDR Four Freedoms Park in New York City:
Space sounds super cool, and it's a fascinating story, since the park was built so long after the designer's death. And that Four Freedoms speech isn't too shabby either!
Huzzah for people named Franklin!
Speaking of, in our unexpected but seemingly unstoppable drive to fill his shelves with 80-year-old books, we recently picked up a copy of one of my very favorite books from my younger years:
Well, I finished that paper, and now I need to head to the Amtrak station and get myself to the University of Oregon to read it at this year's Northwest Ancient Philosophy Workshop. Here's the sort of fun I'll have to live without for a couple of days:
Can't wait to see these two again!
In the meantime, a belated congrats to Merrica! She recently completed her initial training for the Foreign Service. Here she is finding out that her first posting (after she learns Swahili (how cool is that?)) will be in Tanzania:
With Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield: "She is our class mentor. She is currently the Director General of the Foreign Service, and before that was the Ambassador to Liberia."
Okay, this is a bit of a grab-bag post, but speaking of congratulations, this marriage proposal by David Pogue, my favorite tech columnist, is pretty cool:
Finally, for some reason this song has been in my head lately, which means that when Franklin can't sleep at night he gets to hear my try to sing it:
I'm nowhere near that good, but so far he doesn't seem to mind :)
He's dressed for dinner and ready to claim his seat at the table!
Franklin seemed ready, so we started him out with black beans. It was... a mixed reaction:
Also gave him some sweet potatoes, but the clear favorite so far is avocado:
Yum!
And now that we're back at home enjoying things like messy bibs after the long road trip, what better time to contemplate other homes and other lives?
So, Sławek (our cousin in Poland) recently sent this cool photo of my great-great-grandparents' house:
He also provided this helpful description:
It's the home of Joseph and Maryann Bodzioch - parents of Mary Kalucki [my great-grandmother]. The house was built or bought at the beginning of the 20th century (I do not know when, but it occurred between 1902 and 1906). The house stood at the border of the town Brzesko and the village Jadowniki. It stood at the bank of the river Uszwica. [Map with estimated location here.] It was the last residence place of Mary Kalucki before her arriving in the US.
The photograph was taken ~1968.
The house was demolished in 70s of the 20th century.
Merrica visited the area during her epic European trip last year... hopefully Franklin (and his parents) can visit soon too!
It's just two days a week for the first year, but I'm still nervous—and I'm especially worried that I'll get jealous of all of the fun Franklin's having there without me. But it sounds pretty cool—just check out these program descriptions! I'm sure it'll be great... and who knows, if the little guy is having too much fun, I might just have to volunteer there :)
