
<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12220095125_34e5fb63c1_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image post-thumb" title="Doing Laundry">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12220095125_f8468ff2f3_t.jpg" alt="Doing Laundry"/>
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Although it feels like a decade ago, Spanish Christmas crept into this month with the Kings Day celebration, Spain's primary mythical, magic, flying, home-intruding gift giver holiday. Nora was _extremely_ excited about the kings coming to bring presents. We followed the _cabalgata_ (parade) around town; we actually ended up walking in the street with the floats. We began at the very end of the parade, and spurred on by Nora's excitement ended up at the very front of the parade, walking faster than all the floats, overtaking them one by one. Then Nora went to sit on a king's lap and tell him that she wanted a _Hello Kitty_ kite. That night we set out some snacks for the kings and their flying camels.  

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When the morning came, presents were opened. Both Santa Claus and the Kings had been observing me all year long, and both brought me a set of wine glasses. Nora did, in fact, receive a _Hello Kitty_ kite, a product which is not easy to find.

A few weeks afterwards, we finally took the kite to the beach.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12159983606_5aefc54f32_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Kite Fail">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12159983606_448339be10.jpg" alt="Kite Fail"/>
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For the first time ever, in my experience, there was _zero_ wind on Laredo's beach, so we had to cancel the inaugural flight. The pilot was very disappointed.

Sometimes Nora slips into what can best be considered baby talk, where she mangles the pronunciation of words to sound more like a baby. She explains that she's doing this so Ian will understand her. Here she is, having slipped completely out of coherence.

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Ian continues to think that his sister is the center of the universe.

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Ian is now capable of sitting upright for well over thirty minutes at a time. He hasn't quite gotten the hang of pulling himself up to a sitting position, and it's nearly impossible to sit him down, because he tenses his body like a plank trying to remain standing.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12237462143_b62cea03a9_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Birthday Astronaut">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12237462143_759e2d8463_z.jpg" alt="Birthday Astronaut"/>
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We've also started putting him in his walker, which he enjoys for a little bit. Like everyone, at first, he could only push himself backwards, but he's since learned the trick of going forwards. He's got the strength to stand up by himself for periods of several minutes, but he lacks the balance. It's funny when he's in the walker and follow Nora and me around the house as we do things.

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One day this month, Nora came home from school and announced that she'd heard the funniest thing ever. She said that one of her classmates had said, instead of "spaghetti with tomato sauce", "spaghetti with chocolate sauce"!!! She declared this the funniest thing she'd ever heard in her entire life. She's picked up a flare for hyperbole, lately.

He's not really crawling yet, but he's pretty good at doing sort of a breast stroke along the floor. One day, when I was giving Nora a bath, I laid down a blanket in the hallway outside the bathroom and put Ian on top of it on his back, so he could see us. While I was bathing Nora, he managed to roll off the blanket, scoot over to the door, and was banging his forehead into the corner of the doorjamb. One thing's for sure: he really, really wants to be mobile.

Lately it's been difficult to carry Ian, because he's learned to how to "drive" his grownup. Much like how one steers a Segway, he twists to orient his shoulders in the direction he wants to travel, and then leans forward, which pretty much forces his carrier in his chosen direction. Usually this direction is towards whatever room Nora is in.

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  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12220685646_eb8bd5ed2e_z.jpg" alt="Doing Laundry"/>
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Ian's favorite pastime is watching the washing machine spin.

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  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12160692373_e21e3ffd05.jpg" alt="Nora's first burger"/>
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Nora had her first hamburger for Ian's nine-month birthday party.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12160701993_24a6f8e916_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="9-month birthday party">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12160701993_875422071b.jpg" alt="9-month birthday party"/>
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A happy nine-month-old.

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12220095125_34e5fb63c1_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Doing Laundry">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12220095125_f8468ff2f3.jpg" alt="Doing Laundry"/>
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What a card!

The State of the Offspring is strong!

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12237677883_2c8e51443a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Nora and Ian">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-31-state-of-the-offspring-address-january-2014/12237677883_a646bf38e4.jpg" alt="Nora and Ian"/>
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State of the Offspring Address - January 2014


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My wife and I are some of the worst home decorators I know. Not only do we lack vision and style ("What would look good in this space?"), but we're stingy as hell. Also, due to our expatriate past/present, we feel very comfortable with the idea of packing up and moving very far away. Which is funny since we've lived in our current house for 8.5 years, longer than we've lived anywhere but with our parents. Our false sense of "We could move out at any moment!" makes us terribly unwilling to actually nest in our current home, and make it better.  It's been [three and a half years](http://www.flickr.com/photos/erikrasmussen/5164925354/) since we bought our current television, and since then we've been suffering with the old table, that came with our old giant CRT television, as our sole item of "around the television" furniture. We'd been shopping for living room "entertainment center" furniture for about three years, but nothing had really jumped out at us. Most of the suites we saw were in the 700€ - 1300€ range. The influx of _Made In China_ plastic toys this Christmas finally pushed us over the brink.

On Saturday, January 4, the day my in-laws were due to return the kids back to us after having them for 2.5 weeks (we visited frequently!), my wife and I set out for IKEA. We were shopping for several potential needs, but first on the list was somewhere to hide _all these toys_. We went through every living room exhibit they had. Those Swedes are geniuses at selling furniture. Everything is perfectly lit without a cable (to any of the lights) in sight. The whole experience makes me feel bad about my home decor.

I've long been a fan of the _Bestí¥_ line, which measures 74cm tall, and our television just happens to be 75cm off the floor. But they're pretty expensive. A fully loaded model with drawers and stuff came out to almost 400€, just for the under-tv furniture. I'd be fine with plunking down a grand to get a sweet setup, but my wife reasons that for that money, why not go 1300€ and get actual quality (not flatpack "el cheapo") furniture? I'm far from a marital expert, but I've learned it's important not to act unilaterally, especially since my wife is almost always right.

In the downtime between serious consideration of products, I enjoyed doing some people watching. IKEA is full of four kinds of couples: young smiling, hand-holding couples looking to furnish their first abode, pregnant couples high on nesting hormones, couples arguing furiously about why X is a stupid idea for the Y room, and even older couples just browsing aimlessly for accessories to their already furnished home.

Another IKEA observation I have every time I go is this: IKEA could do some really amazing things with smart phones. Rather than giving out pencils and paper to write down product numbers, every item could have a QR code, which could be scanned and even played with in 3D on a smart phone. They could then use GPS to point you to where each item is in the warehouse. The whole experience could be streamlined even further than it already is with some smart tech. Anyway...back to the narrative...

Just as we were about to give up, we came across an unpresuming setup in a dirty white paint that had a vague nautical "beach house" feel to it. It was dirt cheap. 79€ for the under-tv table, with two drawers included. We ventured back through the Swedish labyrinth until we found the same model, the _Borgsí¶_, in brown. We were intrigued. At that point, however, we got a call that, due to a forecast of high winds, my in-laws were bringing the kids early and didn't have keys to our house, we we had to rush home to let them in.

Later that afternoon, I convinced my wife to pull the trigger on the purchase. We got the under-tv table, and two matching bookcases, with opaque doors on the bottom and glass doors on the top, all for under 300€, _way_ below any halfway-comparable furniture suite we'd seen before. We spent Sunday and Monday, which was Kings Day, or the Epiphany, the primary present giving day in the Spanish Christmas, building the furniture and organizing the house around it.

### Before

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-09-swedish-furniture-epiphany/11860487904_7b41c6909a_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Swedish Furniture Epiphany - Before">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-09-swedish-furniture-epiphany/11860487904_13398cfdca.jpg" alt="Swedish Furniture Epiphany - Before"/>
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### After

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-09-swedish-furniture-epiphany/11860493364_20577c3fa2_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Swedish Furniture Epiphany - After">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-09-swedish-furniture-epiphany/11860493364_c86e3478c4.jpg" alt="Swedish Furniture Epiphany - After"/>
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The shelves behind the doors at the bottom are chock full of toys.

The doors were backordered, so I went to get them today. Nora "helped" me install them. It turns out even a four year old can pretty reasonably read, if not act on, IKEA instruction manuals. She insisted that, when Mommy came home, she'd be curious about who made the furniture so pretty, so we'd better leave a note (seen there on the right bookcase door).

<a href="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-09-swedish-furniture-epiphany/11860790355_6ec70cdb91_o_d.jpg" target="_blank" class="flickr-image" title="Nora and Daddy">
  <img src="https://d1js6qm6cshi0v.cloudfront.net/oldblog/2014-01-09-swedish-furniture-epiphany/11860790355_a7d797a8ed.jpg" alt="Nora and Daddy"/>
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We're quite happy with our purchase.


2 posts from January, 2014