It's a Girl!

Eleanor Faith Quant was born today (12-31-10) at 12:00 noon at home. She measured 20.5 inches (same as Joelle), and 7 lbs 6 oz., 5 grams more than Joelle. The plan had been to have her born at North Fulton Hospital (where I sit at the time of this typing), but the baby had other plans. Fortunately our doula is an apprentice midwife and did wonderfully (as of course did Holly!). The midwife we were going to see at the hospital and Joelle's pediatrician both agree that when you're fully dilated and the head's right there the choice is home or the car (and home is a much better option). I'm really too tired to do this justice, but we ended up with a truly optimal birth experience, and everything was practically perfect in every way.







The meaning of the name Eleanor is disputed or unknown. I take it from Hebrew Eliner (My God is a lamp, compare the names Ner, Neriah, & Abner in the Bible), so once again a masculine Hebrew name into a French feminine name (compare "Joelle"). Faith happens to go with Hope (and although Faith was chosen months ago it seems all the more fitting after today). Finally, just as Joelle Hope (J. H.) was our first initials, Eleanor Faith (E. F.) are our middle ones.

Cries in the Night

No baby born yet, so don't get too excited. I thought I should write one more post to round out the year and include a few things I intended to mention previously, but haven't.

We got a little snow on December 26th, raided all the near-by lawns, and gathered just enough snow to make a little snowman. Joelle has been asking to make a snowman weekly for the last four months, so I couldn't let the opportunity slip.




In the early years, Joelle cried at night. Then it became "Maaaamaa" and so forth. It varied throughout the summer, eventually becoming "Mommy-and-Daaaaddy! Mommy-and-Daaady." This fall, as Holly became less and less able to climb over the gate at night, it solidified simply as "Daddy!" with a few interesting twists. The following are a few of our favorite memorable night-cries and their interpretation:

"Have to go potty!"

Followed 30 seconds later by

"I'm wet!" Followed a few seconds later by,

"Wanna wake up! .....It's wake-up time!" (This last bit can be said anytime betwixt 8pm and 6am).

"A poopoo! It's a poo-poo." (This is actually most frequently heard at nap-time, but I thought it fit).

"It's the wrong way!!" -- Something is not right about the way Joelle is tucked into her blankets.

"Pink-and-Yellow-Blanket are lost!!" -- Joelle can't find her pink-and-yellow blanket (this can also happen to Tigger and Elmo).

"There's too many things!!" --This is my personal favorite. It means that Joelle has climbed out of bed, taken a long turn and instead of arriving at the gate and door is lost among her toys in the corner of the room behind the rocking chair.








I bought Joelle "The Wind in the Willows" for Christmas and we're four chapters into it now... by far the most difficult book I have read to her (actually a much bigger step up from Winnie-the-Pooh than I guessed). Holly's going to start her on Laura Ingels pretty soon, and I think it will be a little easier going.



For Christmas Joelle also got Elmo slippers and a little broom.

Fall Update

Ok... It's been months. I know. The problem is always that the longer it's been the more difficult it is for me to remember everything. Here's the last three months in fastworward:

September: John studies every day almost all day in preparation for exams (the big last hurrah of academic hazzing known as "comps," "candidacy exams," "doctoral exams," "prelims," and other names designed to frighten small children). Joelle spends her days with books, play-dough, coloring, her little instruments, and making big messes. Holly spends her days reading to Joelle, wishing John were home, cleaning up messes, and being pregnant with girl number 2.

October: John takes his four exams, one per week (every Thursday), 6 hours each and studies on the off-days. (My four exams were 1. Survey of scholarship on the Hebrew Bible in the last 250 years, 2. The manuscript tradition, ancient translations, and textual criticism of the Bible, 3. The Old Testament in the New Testament, 4. Ancient Near-Eastern Art & Iconography as utilized for understanding the Bible). Holly and Joelle's activities were similar to September.

November: John passes his oral defense of his exams and starts being home to read books, clean messes, and otherwise be present--other than brief disappearances on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays to work on Ge'ez (Classical Ethiopic) and Middle Egyptian (Hieroglyphic). We had a huge to-do list that had been waiting until after exams were over, and once they were over we had plenty waiting for us.

To Present: Holly and I have been reading baby & birth books together, going to the YMCA, eating at Chipotle, and trying to keep Joelle happy/in-line (she's definitely in the midst of the terrible/terrific Twos) as we prepare for our lives to be yet again changed forever in another month.





Fall was pretty fun. We did some house/dog sitting for friends, and made it out to a few places including the botanical gardens (see Joelle slipping under the gate of "Mr. McGregor's Garden Patch" in the Beatrix Potter-themed corner of the children's area).



Joelle has been on a "Winne-the-Pooh" kick for several months... I bought a collection of the original A. A. Milne stories over a year ago and we've been through all 370 pages of it several times (and some stories multiple times). She quotes the book all the time, often adding a "says Eeore" or "says Rabbit" or "says Owl" after the line. She'll also randomly use lines when we least expect it, like declaring "Joelle wants to eat us out of house and home" or "It's a horrible heffalump, run for your lives!" She quotes other books too. For sevearl weeks see was saying "Want to lock her in the green house." Eventually Holly realized that this was from The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, where Benjamin's father locks the cat in the green house and rescues Bejamin and Peter Rabbit.

Yesterday we read the entire Old Testament from her Sunday School Bible (275 illustrated pages in one 90 minute sitting!). Later, she remarked, "Baby Jesus died on the Cross?" It's not easy to put Advent/Christmas stories together with her Easter books, but she's clearly trying.






The above is not the family recipe it appears to be, but is in fact a crazy idea I've wanted to try for a few years. The top layer is made of blended berries (which needed a little more Chia seed to gel properly), the middle layer is made from almond slivers which were blended into a cream, and the bottom is a walnut and pecan crust. It went over well and was pretty good. It didn't taste exactly like the original, but it was definitely similar in a good way. A no-bake, all natural version of it. Holly gets credit for doing all the work on this one... If we get all the recipe together I may play with it next year (or next month).


This may be the last post I make until I announce the next birth. The due date is New Years, but Holly suspects that it will probably be a few days after (like Joelle was). Check back around New Years, and again around the 5th if you haven't heard more.

The Summer Thus Far

Joelle turned two years old in June during our big trip back to Minnesota.


We spread the drive out over three days. Joelle drove her share.


In addition to lots of other fun things, Joelle got to ride her Aunt Aria's horse. She still talks about it fairly regularly.


The big Becker Family Reunion had lots of fun things to do (including some juggling by yours truly... my first solo performance in over four years! Not counting some tennis ball juggling I did for my students in Japan).



Our last stop was a "Microtel." As befits the name, it was so small that we could only get Joelle's bed to fit in the closet. Joelle loved it. "Joelle sleep in the closet!" (she said for several days thereafter).


There's been a number of new developments in the last few months. We've been reading lots of library books (Emperor's New Clothes, Three Little Pigs, etc). I was reading a pre-1950s classic text of The Three Pigs when we got to the part where "the wolf blew down the house and ate up the first little pig!" Joelle (who was hearing the story for the very first time) said, "Oh, no!" My thought was, "Yes! We have comprehension!"

Another great book is "Margarite makes a book," which was designed by an Art History professor. It's a great story for little girls, gives a historically accurate depiction of medieval France and the entire process of book making, and helps teach words like 'Manuscript,' 'Parchment,' and 'Lapis Lazuli.' We've also been reading a fair amount of Dr. Seuss and Beatrix Potter too.

We've been house-sitting and dog-sitting for most of August (for some friends from church). We didn't even bring any toys over here, and Joelle has been perfectly busy with books and dogs. Now we are finally back home. There is tons more I could/should write, but I just haven't the time so I figure it's better to get this much up than nothing at all.

I've been reading away as much as possible. I fear I'm not much more than half-way through my 10,000 pages for exams (which may start the last week of September...eeek!), but I'm pressing on.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly--We are expecting another Girl!!! Due New Year's Eve (or New Year's Day?)--Pregnancy pictures will follow once we have some to share. The big question I've been asking is, 'Do I hope for the tax break (12-31-2009), a memorable birthday (1-1-11), or a memorable birthday that happens to line up with the quad-centennial of the KJV (1-6-11)?'

Morning Exercises

Some mornings Joelle joins me for morning exercises. She calls them "sizes."

Reach up!


Touch your toes!


Kick your legs!



Time for push-ups!


'Help' Daddy do push-ups...




These pictures are all from a few weeks ago. Just after the end of my semester and final papers, but before I had disposed of my annual "finals hair." Although it's been a full two months since I've written here, it's rather late so I will have to leave it brief for now. Simply put, Joelle is talking up a storm. She still loves books, coloring, dogs, and Elmo. I'm done with classes now, and have been moving into a summer of reading in preparation for my prelim exams in the fall (often called "comps" for comprehensive exams, but recently the department has switched over to the lingo "prelims" because our 10,000+ page bibliographies are far short of "comprehensive"). I'm actually enjoying this part, and I think it will be nice. I can read stuff in whatever order I want, and I get to be more flexible with my schedule, and I don't have to waste time on busy-work assignments or sitting in seminars (it's kind of like the "home-schooling" or independent-study portion of graduate school).

We missed Easter Sunday due to Joelle getting her first bad case of the croup. Actually, Holly played violin on Easter, but Joelle and I spent the night at the hospital (Holly was with us there until about 2am... ugh). Unfortunately, we also missed Pentecost Sunday (50 days later) due to another case of croup, although this time we didn't have to go to the hospital. Otherwise Joelle has been in pretty good health.

I have mixed feelings about the collections of Curious George books that I bought Joelle a few months ago... my ability to do 30-60 minutes of George is waning. We bought some Elmo books just in time for the Easter-time hospital stint... and after reading them a few dozen times at the hospital and I can only handle so much Elmo too. This last weekend we went to the library and checked out a few books (new books, hurrah!) including recent classics like "if you give a mouse a cookie," as well as older classics like a 70s era version of the Three Little Pigs. The latter has been great because it's the 'real' version that I remember growing up with, not the more modern politically correct or watered-down versions (although the one where the wolf turns out to have been framed is quite amusing). This 70s vintage retelling has features like the escape in the butter churn, the actually eating of the first two pigs (and the eating of the wolf by the third), and the correct rhyme "then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house _in_" (instead of "down." The importance of 'in' is that it rhymes with "hair of my chinny chin chin"). The first time we read the book, I read the sentence "and he ate up the little pig," and Joelle immediately said "Oh, no!" and I thought "Yes! Comprehension!"

A few of my favorite sayings or happenings in the last few months have been the following:

#1 - Joelle and I went for a walk around the condominium complex. We took her bubbles (she loves blowing bubbles!) and her bouncy ball outside. We walked around and met a neighbor with a watering-can who was watering flowers (and who let Joelle hold it when it was empty). On the other side of the fence from the pool, Joelle discovered the big water pump which empties and fills the pool. --fast forward 5 hours later-- I'm putting Joelle down to sleep, and as she is winding down in my arms she starts to recite the highlights of the afternoon... "...Bubbles... Ball... Watering-can... ...saw-a-pump!" followed by "...Bubbles... Ball... Watering-can... saw-a-pump."

#2 - Joelle comes up to me holding a plastic heart (the 2-half kind which could be filled with valentines day candy). She says, "Heart!" I say, "That's a heart." She throws it on the ground where it breaks apart into its two halves. Joelle looks up at me and says, "break-a-heart? Joelle-break-a-heart?"

#3 - Joelle is starting to try to sing. The last two or three weeks Joelle has been trying to sing a lot more. Unfortunately she's so busy that frequently she doesn't sleep during her nap, she just talks to herself either reviewing the days activities, muttering randomly, or singing parts of songs (ABCs, Isn't he wonderful?, Elmo's song, the wheels on the bus, and several others).

#4 - Joelle has finally gotten her numbers 1-10 down in Japanese. We'll be walking through the grocery store and she'll start counting random things... "Ichi... nee.. san.. shi.. go..." She was doing this a week ago when encountered a Japanese student I know from Emory, who was quite impressed.


A belated birthday gift (since it was very very back-ordered) made possible by generous birthday gifts by several of you, was a pair of Vibram 5-Fingers "barefoot" running shoes, which are amazing. Basically they are a form of minimal footwear which makes it as if you were running barefoot (i.e., lots of flex, not extra 'support' etc.) but has enough rubber sole to keep your feet from getting burnt/cut-up/etc. I had to give up running several years ago due to Plantar-Fasciitis, which is a foot condition you would not wish upon your worst enemy. After several years of expensive inserts and virtually everything one could think of, I've finally been won over to the alternative school of thought, which is that most foot/knee running-related injuries or conditions are actually caused by modern footwear, and recovery requires less shoe, not more. Instead of the usual alternative medicine/lifestyle magazines or websites that I occasionally cite on this blog (and for which some of you like to raz me) I'll simply point those interested to the research center at Harvard University which has produced a few papers on foot-strikes and barefoot/minimal footwear running: http://www.barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/

Anyhow, all that to say, I've been back to jumping rope for several weeks, and today was run #2 (just a little over 2 miles this morning, but one has to start slow). So far so good. Changing the way one runs uses a lot of different muscles. The street never felt so hard... I've never liked grass so much. Pretty much everything in my feet/legs is sore EXCEPT my heels and plantar-fascia, which I find a nice change.



These are my 5-fingers shoes. They're not too bad for walking either, if you don't mind the road feeling hard. I find my posture is better in them too. For those of you simply interested in 'the look' you might be better off with these.




Here is a shot of Joelle and I with sippy and "the blue one" (i.e., the blue Curious George book). As is all too common, Holly has taken all the pictures, so I haven't been able to included her in the blog. She's been working feverishly finishing Joelle's 'baby book' so that we'll have the first year documented before the second year ends, and planning our trip. Joelle is a few weeks away from being 2-years old, and this year we'll be back in MN for her birthday. I have to get to bed now, and for the record this was all written in May (although perhaps only by an hour or so) but I fear it will be posted as if it were in June. Oh well.

Further Developments

It's been very hard to get a good photo of Joelle lately. We haven't taken all that many recently, and very very few have turned out well. Here she is waving furiously.



So it's been about a month since I wrote of Joelle's foray into multi-word utterances. The fun don't stop, my friends. The list would be too long, and my memory is too poor to give you more examples. Suffice to say that she speaks in multi-word utterances all the time (all...the...time...). In some cases even three words! Today as we prepared to go to church Holly took Joelle's coat and told Joelle that it was time to put it on. Joelle said "Put-it-on" (with mild rising intonation).

Joelle has become very adept with adjectives like "big," ("big..potty," "big..shoes), plurals ("Two Elmos...Two Elmos"), possessives ("Daddy...pocket....daddy's pocket"), and general associations and comprehension. Last week on the way home from church we said "Joelle, we're going to Chipotle." The reply from the car-seat was, "Beenzraiz....yummy." We always order her a side of rice and a side of black beans.

Books are still the greatest thing in the world (either that or live dogs), and we've begun checking out books from the library. I recently purchased some collections of Curious George books (8 books in each volume for $7.50 a volume). It was a great deal, she loves them, and there are lots of new words and good pictures of lots of different things and activities... however, I don't think everyone wants to know what's it's like to read 196 pages of curious George (a single collection volume), and have it followed by "Aggen, again." Then to reading Curious George and the Dump Truck (again), and Curious George and the Surprise Party (again) (at this point you are past the 220 pages mark in one sitting...not counting all the little Beatrix Potter stories you read before that). Joelle also absolutely loves my copy of "The Biggest Bear" by Lynd Ward (86 pages, but always demanded to be read twice) which had been the marathon leader (pre-George). Unfortunately, the bear's love of maple sugar has led to Joelle constantly trying to get the sugar in the kitchen closet.

Although I wouldn't say that she's "reading" yet, Joelle definitely knows her letters, is very aware of words and letters, and often can identify words (on mugs, sweatshirts, etc. that she's familiar with). She also can 'read' a number of words from a book of words (the words slide, and there is a picture of the object beneath). I suspect that she mostly does it from memorization, but I have given her pages out of order and she'll still point to words and correctly tell me "blanket," "nap," "nose," etc. Her average is even better if I ask her to point to a specific word (she's even paused and starred when I asked for a word that wasn't on the page, and then she's turned the page to find it... so I know it's not pure memorization, she's clued in to either first letters, word length, or something similar).

Potty-training continues to be another huge area of success. The latest and greatest story comes from last week. We were at Ross (similar to Marshals, if you haven't been there) after a good length of time running around the mall--(Holly had gone shopping at Ross, so I let Joelle run loose and chased her up and down the hallways of the otherwise rather empty and quiet mall.) While at Ross, suddenly Joelle turned to us and said, "Potty! Quick!" We suddenly realized that she was wearing one of her training pants (by the same maker as our beloved cloth diapers) which have been wonderful for around-the-house wearing, but which don't really contain enough for long outings or naps. We set Joelle down for a moment as we tried to figure out what to do. Joelle began hurrying toward a changing room, still telling us "potty!" We followed her, explained to her that there wasn't a potty there, and asked a store employee there, where one was. We were told that the nearest restroom was back in with the changing rooms (exactly where Joelle had been heading). We were blown away that: #1 She had to go, and told us so (which still doesn't always happen, but she's getting better at it both with us and with nursery workers), #2 In a strange environment, she assumed that there must a be a potty near-by, and #3 That a specific alcove struck her as the appropriate place to find one. Finally, to her credit, it should be noted that the first stall Holly took her to had no toilet paper, so they had to move over to another one and Joelle patiently stayed dry until then, and we continued our shopping in peace without incident.

When I began researching cloth diapers two years ago, before Joelle was born, one of the things that I read was that children who wear cloth tend to potty-train earlier due to the discomfort of a wet diaper (vs. the chemically ultra-absorbant disposable diapers which I'm glad to say we've recently stopped using at night). We've definitely noticed a difference in that she's significantly less likely to pee in a cloth pull-up or cloth diaper (during waking hours) than the Pamper equivalent. The flip side of not using cloth at night is she needs a mid-night change--usually around 2:30 or 3:30am). For about the last 3 or 4 weeks that has been a daddy-exclusive... "(groan) you change her, I'll feed her... (deeper groan) alright, I'll change her, you feed her." Such is shared parenthood. It also means, in conjunction with using re-usable pull-ups/training pants, that I've been able to revamp and continue a form of my evening washing ritual which has brought me great joy and fulfillment.


I had a birthday recently, attaining to the ripe-young age of 27 (thanks all of you who sent me cards and stuff!!!). One new show-and-tell item is a new set of juggling bean-bags (Thank you!!!). I haven't had any of my own in almost 5 years, so it's a thrill to be back to the world of bean-bag juggling (and I'm proud to say I can still do a 7 ball flash, which for all you non-jugglers means 7 throws and 7 catches, i.e. one cycle; and make valiant attempts at 6. Five balls and less is a no-brainer and I've kept that up due to our frequent purchasing of round fruits). Joelle enjoys it too. "Daddy beanbags...daddy beanbags!....Jugging." I've realized that she's now to the same age as the active little girl I used to baby-sit when I was first learning to juggle (12+ years ago!!).

Word Pairs!

In the last two or three days Joelle has finally started trying to say more than single words. Of course she's been saying phrases for a while... but only ones that she thinks are one word, for example, "Alldone," or "Akka" (="Our Car"). Enunciation is progressing. "Wa-wa," became "Wadi," and now is "Wa-dur." "Snowflake" is now "Snowflake" (and no longer "nose-pick").

Yesterday I gave her a banana when she said "Mana peez."
Today she's been saying "Yes, Mommy," or "O.K. Mommy."
The first noticeable breakthrough came a day or two a go with "sippy cup" (instead of just one or the other).

Unfortunately Joelle has a little cold right now, and we've run out the product ("Little noses") which we bought back in MN around Thanksgiving. Joelle remembered about it from her previous cold, and when we went to clean out her nose today, she asked "Lit-tle noses?"

That's some of the latest and greatest. She still loves Elmo, loves to see the moon and stars (the first time she saw the _real_ moon back in December just blew her away... only dogs are more exciting). If I haven't mentioned it, she's moved into coloring with actual crayons instead of the pens. Potty training has continued successfully. She never tires of books (and right now we've got our first 5 books from the public library out for her), and she's continuing to have fun with her magnetic letters. She points out letters everywhere. Words, sentences, or any text is "ledy." She can give the names/sounds for about half the alphabet. 'G' is G, 'J' is "Joelle." 'C' is now C (for a while it was "cookie"). She likes to point out the letter 'O's on my U of MN sweatshirts (which she always calls "Soda" for Minnesota).
She knows that one shelf on my big bookshelf is pretty much all Bibles, but she doesn't know which one. She thinks it's the shelf of commentaries, so sometimes she'll point at each commentary and say "Bible, Bible, Bible, Bible" right down the line.

She has enough hair that we've started putting it in a pony-tail or pig tails and hopefully next post will have more pictures.