Monday Morning

Helena is still sleeping, probaby exhausted from all the food she's been eating. Saturday we stopped at Taco Bell for lunch. She inhaled 2 chicken soft tacos like they were cookies. Last night she had two platefulls of food. I'm terrified of what it will be like when she's a teenager.
But I wanted to make a quick post to share something with everyone with either a high speed connection or a good deal of patients. I was checking one of my the forums at one of the greatest free programs ever, Celestia. Someone posted a short film. If you enjoyed 2001, click the link, it is amazing especially considering it was done on a home computer.

But the really cool bit is it looks like now I can share videos!
Helena and Megan jamming!

just a note, you'll have to have quicktime to watch the videos, not my choice, that's the format the camera makes movies.

If it all works then everyone ought to check out putfile.com

Also be on the the look out for my brother Mike's work website. I'm trying my hand at web design. At the moment it is a complete hodge-podge of broken links but that shouldn't stop all of you with websites of your own from adding a link to it. It's all about the ranking baby, all about the ranking.

And it looked like we'd have an early spring

Several days of the last week have been beutiful sunny days. Beutiful like 70 degree temperatures. The daffodils have bloomed as well as the weeds in the yard but alas we're heading back down to lows in the 30's. At least this will keep the mosquitoes at bay.

A few pictures of our fun in the sun...









We have done some other stuff other than lounging in the sun. Helena learned how to make applepie with her Grandma Carol.


And Helena wwnt to Chuck E. Cheese's for her friend's Angelica's 4th birthday party. While giant animatronic rodents and blarring music are not Helena's (or our) cup of tea, she did have a good time.



And as far as tooth watch goes for Megan, no signs yet other than the vast quantities of drool.

And we start another week

I find I'm apologizing fairly often about not posting more often but this time it isn't my fault. Lisa has been at the computer more since someone pointed her to the worst web site ever. So bad I've added it to the links on the left.

Before the pictures a quick few tidbits. We unloaded the box of 6-9 month clothes for Megan this evening. She's smaller than the average baby but has outgrown most of the 3-6 month clothes. Still no crawling yet but I think we're getting real close to starting a daily tooth hunt section here at In the Schutte House.
Helena spent Friday at Grandma Helen's house. The two H's had a grand time making jelly and feeding the ducks. This weekend other than unpacking the hand-me-downs, we did some work in the yard getting the garden all ready and such. Saturday night we watched the Red vs Blue DVD with our friend Ed. If you've ever played any multiplayer games, check out the site (videos however are rated R for language and cartoon violence)


Megan loves glasses








off to grandma's house


And just what are you looking at?

Also want to add if you watch television, please watch the show House Tuesday nights on Fox. While the ads seem to imply it is some sort of drama, don't listen to them. It has some of the funniest dialog on television. Just watch the show.

Science Thursday

Just because I'm a stay-at-homer (D'oh!) doesn't mean I can't keep up on all the latest research. An while Megan and Helena entertain each other I'll share a few quick science headlines for those of you who can't bring yourselves to check the link to EurekAlert!


"Babies can learn words before their first birthday" "...there may be no 'lower limit' to the age at which their children are able to learn new words". Does this mean we have to watch our language all the time?

Preschoolers' motivation and temperament relate to attention skills
"The findings from this study suggest problems that arise from attention difficulties are not limited to difficulty with concentration and sitting still, but are related to how children approach challenging or new situations".

And as Valentines day is coming up how fitting that scientist have found the secret to marital bliss. We all know humor is an important part of marriage but apparently like almost everything else that means something different to men and women. Women want a man who makes them laugh and luckily we men it seems want a women who will laugh at us.

And while we're on a science kick I should let you know I've replaced the family with robots. Here's the latest snapshots




If you like to cyborgize your own family head over here

I had always thought pre-made baby food made finicky eaters. If you've ever tasted it its bland and often either too salty or sweet. Obviously it sets kids up to crave overly sweet or salty bland food. But as the bard might say

"The fault, dear reader, is not in the jars,
But in ourselves..."

We thought it was because we had modeled good eating habits and had introduced real food- real good food- to Helena. She is a better eater than many adults I know including myself (unlike Helena, I've never been a fan of watermelon or tomatoes). Megan is getting the same experiences as Helena did as an infant. The baby food doesn't come from a jar, mostly it's the same food we eat. Megan so far enjoys butternut squash, lima beans, peas, sweet potato, spinach, green beans, cauliflower, apples and bananas. She also gets a bit of formula and fortified cereal to make sure she's getting all the iron and vitamins she needs. So far it seems she enjoys her food and will thankfully not grow up to be a picky eater (knock on wood).

Turns out that "Children's taste sensitivity and food choices influenced by taste gene". Sensitivity to bitter taste is strongly inherited. So if mom and dad couldn't stand brussel sprouts as a kid, likely you won't either.

On a somewhat related note, Helena and I have started some seeds for our garden this spring. The radishes have been started in side and in a few weeks will be ready to go outside. Eventually they'll be joined by Snow peas, spinach, carrots and tomatoes. Pictures of course will be posted when they sprout.

Finally a game

Finally a Superbowl that you had to watch 90% to see who would win. While I was cheering for Philly (Mostly against Dillon truth-be-told) I must say it was a fun game to watch. I was going to start with the question of What do the Eagles have in common with Rocky Balboa? Both are fictional champions from Philadelphia. But that wouldn't be nice and it really was a enjoyable game. Were it not for a few Farve-like brain farts who knows we could have had a real upset but as they say in the commercial

As of today we're all undefeated.

Anyone want to wager on the Bengals going to Superbowl XXXX?


As a thanks for coming back after our long absence from the web I thought I'd fill your harddrives with more photos. Click on the pictures for larger versions and if you ever get sick of my attempts of witty writing here you can head over here for the same pictures sans comments. Of course then you'll miss out on stories like the following:

Helena got a Lite Bright for her birthday and if you don't remember let me tell you it's hard to tell the pink from the orange pegs when they aren't illuminated. Helena and I discussed that while making a picture one day. Like a typical discussion with a 4 year old you just don't know what sticks and what doesn't. Anyway a few days later while out for the day we see some water fowls in one of the retention ponds and Helena calls out 'hey look ducks!' Lisa tells her that she thinks that in fact they're geese. Helena pauses for a moment.
"You know" she starts following with that 'tisk' sound she's perfected with an air of philosophical waxing "Geese and ducks are a lot like the pink and orange pegs, they're kinda hard to tell them apart."
So anyone out there with a background in early childhood development does that count as abstract thinking?

While you marvel at the intellectual juggernaut that is our Helena here's some pictures to post on your fridge. Just think when Helena and Megan take over the world as benevolent dictators you can point to these pictures and say you knew them way back when.













Just to give credit where it is due, the above pictures that Helena is not in were taken by Helena. Hmm gift idea for next year? Her own digital camera....

what is that suppose to be? They are blocks silly.


I'm writing about them.

they're Writers' blocks.

That's going to be my mea culpa for not keeping up this blog like I'd hope too. But here we are again. So let's put my failings as a writer behind us and together lets try and move forward 'kay? Great.

We have some news around here.
I'm a stay at home dad now! A few weeks ago we pulled both the girls out of the AAI Learning Center daycare program. While we all loved the program and the teachers there economically it no longer made any sense. I could go into a long rant about corporate officers fleecing employees and shareholders and seemingly try to run a company into the ground but look at the chart you can see last year wasn't so good for Lisa's employer and rather than cutting the compensation for the folks that sent the company into a tailspin, they raised the price of things like the daycare to the point it made more sense for me to stay home with the girls than continue at my job.




Oh wait I said I wasn't going to rant.

But it is going well. The girls and I are have a good time. We're working out schedules for activities to do around here and hopefully there will be fun stuff to share real soon.

So welcome back to The Schutte House.