Walking entropy

Fair warning: Those who thought the Magellan post was a little science-y should feel free to roll their eyes at me and scroll right on down to the photo below. Those who enjoyed it are invited to indulge me again briefly. Hey, you can take the chemist out of the lab, but...

I thought I understood the Second Law of Thermodynamics pretty well before. It's always been my favorite one. In Chem 112, there was nobody wishing harder than I that the ball Professor Jean dropped on the table would fly back into the air. Living with a toddler, though, has brought me to a new understanding of entropy. (For the less science-inclined who decided to brave it anyway, entropy is really just disorder. Spontaneous changes tend toward an increase in entropy--a decrease in organization.) I always understood entropy as something that just happened. Disorder reigns supreme. Well, in this house, disorder definitely reigns supreme, but entropy doesn't just happen. It lives here. In fact, a little bundle of it is sleeping right now in a crib upstairs. A bundle of entropy seems like a contradiction in terms, but I really think that's exactly what a toddler is. Wherever she goes, entropy just explodes out of her. If you had been here to look around this house right after bedtime, you'd have found rice under the table (fine), shoes on the stairs (okay), a spatula on the stairs (hmmm...), return address labels on the back of my shorts (in case of amnesia, I suppose), a contact lens case in the pantry (duh), a bowl of cereal in the bathroom (you never know), the contents of my wallet in a plastic bowl under the dining room table (very handy) and, let's see, yes, photos of Rachel's grandparents under the coffee table (of course). This list doesn't include the toys and books scattered about, but that seems more to be expected, somehow. This is as nothing compared with the time my friend Carey found twenty pieces of silverware in her bed, but, still, I find it fascinating. Each day brings a new sense of wonder at where she'll think to put things next. And once we're living in "yeyyow house" (still her requested destination every time we get in the car--we think she's as excited to move as we are!) there will be a wealth of new places to put and find things. So fun.

Okay, I said there would be a photo. Here's Rachel, sharing both her new chair and her O's with Elmo. She's really taken to personifying her toys and dolls lately--feeding and changing them, mostly. She fed an O to a photo of herself as a newborn today. Very cute.

Old lady--no pants!

Rachel is a very observant little girl. Frequently, as we're driving along, she'll announce something like "Mail truck!" when clearly there is no mail truck anywhere to be seen. Then, sure enough, one will appear from behind a truck or something. She notices everything. (Partly, I suppose, because it's all still fascinating to her, and partly because she's not having to focus on things like driving!) So I've come to believe that everything she announces really is there somewhere, even if I haven't seen it. This philosophy and standard response of, "I don't see one, but I don't doubt that you did--I must have missed it!" usually serves us well. One day last week, however, we were driving along a quiet street when our back-seat passenger cried out: "Old lady. No pants!" Now, there were no half-naked women to be seen, thank goodness, but what on earth was the child talking about? She doesn't have a history of making up stories, so we're not quite sure what to think. We have gotten quite a few laughs out of it, though.

Rachel's hair is getting long fast. We've found that pigtails tend to stay in a little better than a single ponytail. Well, until she pulls them out. But I have to say, I almost hate to put them in because I think she's so darn cute it nearly hurts to look at her!


Rachel was introduced to the joys of the backyard sprinkler yesterday. It's harder than you'd think to fill up a bucket this way, but she enjoyed herself thoroughly.

Our Little Portuguese Explorer

So there was a little quiz hidden in last week's post about the house. Some of you may be wondering who Magellan is. Others may recall that Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan led the first European attempt to circumnavigate the globe. (It didn't turn out so well for Magellan, but some of his crew finished the trip, and he ended up with a strait named after him, so maybe it wasn't all bad, either.) Even those probably wonder why there is a room set aside for him in our new house. Well, if you belong to either of these two groups, kudos to you for reading all the captions and/or remembering sixth-grade social studies! But the Magellan in question is not the famed explorer. Rather, the Magellan who will be moving into the blue bedroom sometime in November is Rachel's little brother-or-sister-to-be. Yet another reason that we're glad to have the house thing finally coming to fruition! We'll have a few months to live in what Rachel has taken to calling "yeyyow house" and get settled in before we become a foursome.

"Why Magellan?" you ask? "Why not?!" we say! Actually, Magellan was Rachel's first word. She was about three months old when David carried her out from a diaper change saying, "Rachel has a favorite explorer. I could swear she just said, 'Magellan.'" Rachel's fetal name was Avogadro, a chemical nod to her due date's proximity to mole day. We couldn't find any such connection for Magellan's due date, so we chose this other significant word instead. (Fear not--Rachel will not be the one to choose what we playfully refer to Magellan's after-birth name. (Quick aside: Do you know anyone who names their placenta?) That role rests squarely with the parents in this house--er, family.)

Anyway, with no further ado, we would like to present Magellan's first blog photo. Well, I suppose it's more aptly called a sono, since there were no light waves involved in its capture, but it will do until Magellan meets the light.

For those unschooled in interpreting these skeletal heiroglyphs (Props to ultrasound techs. They see what we mere mortals cannot--it's really amazing what they can decipher from the fuzzy, moving images they see.), imagine that you see a wee infant lying on its back, with its head to the left of your screen. You'll note the ribs in cross section along the chest, an arm held above the chest, and a cute little face in profile. Very little--this creature is currently the length of a banana!--but we hope you'll agree that it's also very cute! As proud parents, we should also point out the nicely developing brain. That's what parents are supposed to do, right--talk up how smart their children are? This one actually waved at Big Sister during the first ultrasound. (Big Sister, by the way, would like everyone to know that she, too, is excited to meet the baby. What's more, she, too, has a baby in her belly, as does Daddy. We could have a very busy fall if all these babies are born at once!)

So there you go. Meet Magellan. His/her interests include sleeping, wiggling, kicking, and break-dancing. (Quite a mover and shaker, this one!) Oh, and she/he has recently added sucking, hearing, and peeing to his/her list of skills. We're very proud, and excited to introduce you to (ahem!) after-birth Magellan late this fall!