I am constantly amazed at how quickly Emma is growing. Her developmental changes are apparent almost daily. Before, when we put on a "Baby Einstein" video for her she would look at the screen for a few seconds, and then fix her gaze on the ceiling light fixture, or the tile floor. Now she is capable of watching TV for up to 30 minutes at a time, fully immersed in the program as if she understands what is going on or is trying real hard to figure out.

"Dora The Explorer" is her favorite these days. I have only observed the show for brief intervals but it seems as though Dora is always headed somewhere, so the show focuses on language, direction, and song. Dora is bi-lingual so Emma gets a smidgen of Spanish in every episode. The show is somewhat interactive as Dora will ask the viewers to repeat words that she says, or answer questions like "how can we figure out how to get there?" which is always answered with the familiar refrain, "The Map!". Elena is really cute because she helps Emma along during these parts and will respond out loud to Dora's queries, modeling what is expected for Emma. Sometimes I am not sure who likes "Dora The Explorer" more, Emma or Elena. Either way, they both seem to have a great time when the show is on. Elena has been Tivoing them so Emma can watch them at her leisure. Tivo is one of those technologies that is so cool, so innovative, and so uniquely different that it has become acceptable to use its name as a verb. Google is another one of those technologies. For those of you that are unfamiliar with Tivo, Tivo is a digital video recorder (DVR). That's a VCR-like device with a hard-drive. The advantage of this configuration is that you don't have to mess with tapes anymore. Everything is stored on the hard drive and accessed through an extremely user friendly interface. Our Tivo can record up to 60 hours of content. Shows can be accessed and deleted virtually instantly in any order making management of your recordings a snap. The other powerful feature Tivo provides is the ability to search for shows by title or keyword. Once you find a show that you like, say "Survivor" for instance, you can setup a "Season Pass" which is just a fancy marketing term the people at Tivo came up with that means, "copy every episode". Once a "Season Pass" has been set for a particular show you can pretty much fire and forget it. Every episode will be recorded. So if the networks decide to change the time or day of the week that the show is aired, you won't miss it. Tivo's got your back. Anyway, I figured I would talk a little about technology here so when Emma is big she can look back and see what technology she grew up with, as it will evolve tremendously throughout her lifetime. Furthermore, I am a technology freak, and Emma needs to know that. The sooner the better.

Emma has been teething something awful this week. She's been drooling and foaming at the mouth like a mad dog. Alright, maybe not foaming but I like to embellish. She has been sticking her hand into her mouth to ease the pain and gags frequently. Elena has been giving her Tylenol and cold teething rings to take the edge off. It breaks our heart to see her in pain but there is not much we can do aside from what we are already doing. It will probably be three or four more months before her teeth actually erupt through the gum line so we are in for a long few months.

Elena picked up a Jumperoo for Emma on Sunday. Elena's friend Laura highly recommended it to Elena. After reading countless rave reviews on Amazon.com (Four and a half stars out of five from 741 reviewers), it quickly became apparent that this would be a good thing for Emma to try. Elena picked it up Sunday and 30 minutes later Emma was hopping around like a baby kangaroo. Alright, her legs aren't quite that strong yet, but the Jumperoo allowed Emma to stand in a vertical position while being supported in a bungee-like harness. It's difficult to say whether Emma likes the device or not. The problem right now is that Emma has two settings, crying and not crying. If she likes something she doesn't cry; and if she doesn't like something, well she cries. It's a tough interface to deal with at times as she doesn't give you a whole lot of positive feedback. That is not entirely true because if I run full tilt into a wall, Emma will smile, perhaps even let out a small laugh of approval. But the price of admission is quite high for that small bit of positive feedback. Under normal circumstances (where I am not being clubbed with a frying pan or having an anvil dropped out of a second story window onto my head for Emma's amusement) Emma pretty much operates in just those two modes I eluded to earlier, crying and not crying. So as far as the Jumperoo is concerned, I am going to say that Emma liked it as she did not scream or cry to be taken out. Either way, Elena and I like the Jumperoo a lot as it seems to force Emma to expend a significant amount of energy which helps her sleep through the night, and that's a good thing in our book.

Emma and I celebrated Elena's 36th Birthday this week. There was not as much fan fare as I typically like. It fell on a Friday and despite my leaving work early (at 4:00 PM), by the time I got home after picking up a cake, flowers, balloons, and dinner, it was already after 6:00 PM. We were tired and had to tend to Emma's needs. I think it was around 10:00 PM at night before we were able to light the cake. When I finally did bring Elena her cake with a single lit candle and asked Elena to make a wish, it dawned upon me that Elena would have to come up with a new one. We never discuss each others wishes because deep down inside I suppose we feel that if we divulge the nature of our wish it won't come true, but for the last three birthdays I know what Elena has been wishing for, as her wish was my own, to have a happy, healthy child. Emma's existence means that our wish had been granted.

Elena took Emma to Gymboree this week. Gymboree is a franchise where parents take their kids to learn how to do age appropriate activities with them. It is a relaxed instructor-led gymnasium-like atmosphere filled with song and playful one-on-one parent/child interaction. I wanted to go as well but Elena needs to have activities that she can do with Emma while I am at work so she can break the monotony of her week. According to Elena, Emma was memorized by Gymbo the clown (pictured above). His colorful outfit had her entranced. Most of the kids in her class were four months and up, but Emma was just as big as them. As the parents went around the room introducing themselves and their child, a collective gasp was made by the other parents when Elena announced Emma as being two and a half months old. She's a big little one. Being developmentally as young as she is, Emma had trouble doing some of the things the four and five month olds were doing like holding her head up and lifting her upper body while on her tummy, but the cool thing is that by observing the other children, Elena got a look at what we can expect from Emma in the coming weeks. The first class was a free introduction. When all was said and done, Elena liked it enough to sign up for ten sessions and also picked up a Gymbo puppet to entertain Emma with during the week.

It's a world of laughter
A world of tears
It's a world of hopes
And a world of fears
There's so much that we share
That it's time we're aware
It's a small world after all...

That song is quite apropos. This weekend while Elena and her Mom were shopping at Target to pick up Emma's Jumperoo they ran into someone whom they had never met but who recognized them from the web page. Carole, whom Myriam has known as a business contact for the last six years and had developed a friendship with, had never met in person. Myriam had mentioned Emma's web page to Carole during one of their many conversations and Carole has been following along ever since. Well, as fate would have it, Carole, Elena's and Myriam's paths would cross at Target on Sunday. Normally this chance meeting would not have occurred as neither of the parties involved had ever met face to face. They would have passed each other and that would have been the end of it. But Carole recognized Elena from pictures on the website and mustered up the courage to approach Elena and Myriam to introduce herself. She was extremely pleasant and had very nice things to say. Elena and Myriam were eager to come home to tell me about this chance encounter, especially since Myriam was two full counties away from her home at the time. How cool is that?