Krazy Katie Kaboom!

DA-DA-LA DA-DA-LA DA-DA-LA DA-DA-LA THIS IS A KATIE UPDATE

Yes! Katie gets her very own update today! We just can't get over how much she's doing these days. Six months has really been the big one for her.

SIX MONTH OLD MIRACLE BABY WALKS
Well, not quite: but in one month she's gone from rolling back to front to almost crawling! I'm trying really hard (and failing spectacularly) not to compare the two girls, but I honestly don't remember Miriam getting this mobile this quickly. Maybe it's b/c Miriam spent so much time on her belly in the early months that it seemed to take her forever to do anything exciting -- with Katie it's hardly been 2 whole months that she's gotten any quality tummy time. But she's certainly made up for it! About a week or so ago she figured out how to spin in circles and wobble back & forth to reach for toys (it's hilarious to watch her), and then last week she started doing pushups (which I can't even do), although she kept scootching herself backwards! But then yesterday she figured out how to dig in her toes to push herself FORWARD. Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuhn! Today it took her about 5 minutes to wobble & scoot her way halfway across the living room... to reach all of big sister's brightly colored books, stacked so neatly on the shelf, of course! Also of course, this couldn't be tolerated, so I came on the scene to behold Miriam hauling books off the shelf, out of Katie's reach, telling her that NO, books were not for babies! Ahhh, and so it begins! All in all though, Miriam has been pretty good about sharing toys with Katie. She's such a devoted big sister that I think she really wants to make Katie happy. She seems to draw the line at books though. (I'm guessing she gets this from her mother's side of the family....) :)

Sooooo... this weekend I think we're going to be doing some extensive babyproofing and thorough vacuuming. Earlier today I caught Katie trying to finish off tortilla chip crumbs which Miriam had dropped on the floor. Okay, what is it with little kids and itty bitty things?? You know the joke: you give a kid a toy, they take the toy out of the box, play with it for 10 seconds, chuck it aside and then play with the box. Why is this funny? Because it's TRUE! WHY do we still insist on buying toys for our kids? I can surround Katie with half a dozen interesting toys, and she'll ignore them all to play with a tortilla chip crumb. Or a bran flake crumb. Or a tiny piece of crayon paper. Or the leg of the table. She'll also pull her toy basket over and spread the toys all around her,


Exhibit A

and then play with the wicker! I can always tell she's doing this because she'll get REALLY quiet. (it's also SO true that you get nervous and suspicious when your kids get quiet) She gets really focused, trying to pick up some microscopic piece of fuzz.

SIX MONTH OLD MIRACLE BABY SPEAKS
Here is a transcript of a conversation Katie recently had with her toes:
[brows drawn together in concentration] Aaaaaaahhhhhhthhhhhbbbbbbbttttmmmmmmmmm[toes now in mouth]mmmmmm thpppmmmm thmppppmmmmm[trying to blow raspberries w/toes still in mouth] thbbbbtaaaaahhhhhhhhhHHHHH [drool now running down both cheek and foot] MA-MA-MA-MA-BA-BAAA!! AA!! AA!! thbbbbbbbppppppttt... [etc. etc.]
She seems to be most eloquent between the hours of 2 and 5 am, while her diaper is being changed. We often wake up to her zrbtting out her pacifier in the wee hours. Speaking of the wee hours...

SIX MONTH OLD DEMON CHILD REFUSES TO SLEEP
Our angelic baby who used to sleep in until 8 or 9 has taken to waking up to eat at 4 or 5, and then NOT GOING BACK TO SLEEP!!! Needless to say, it's driving us batty. Mommy cannot live on 5 hours of sleep a night. Well, maybe she can live, but her children certainly won't for very much longer. Since Mr. Evil Sun has taken to rising at about the same time, we're going to try a couple different things to make the room darker in the morning, in the hopes that darkness will encourage her to sleep longer. (white blinds on our two big windows just ain't doin' it) If nothing works we'll move Katie's crib into the basement and invest in a couple pairs of earplugs. (ha ha, just kidding) (well, almost) It's a good thing she's so cute.


Exhibit B

Kids' cuteness is definitely a survival trait. And speaking of cuteness...

SIX MONTH OLD RAPUNZEL GETS FIRST HAIRCUT
Okay, so her hair isn't golden, but Katie's hair is definitely LONG -- almost as long as Miriam's was at her first birthday! I had to cut her bangs the other day b/c they kept getting in her eyes. I love her hair -- it's so soft and silky and thick -- it's gotten over the fuzzy stick-straight-up phase. She still gets some pretty awesome bedhead, though. (you can see a little remnant in Ex. B above) I'm sure both my girls will want to chop all their hair off when they're teenagers, so I'm enjoying their luxuriant tresses while they have them. :)

DA-DA-LA DA-DA-LA DA-DA-LA DA-DA-LA THIS HAS BEEN A KATIE UPDATE

I'm a Ravenclaw!

What House are you at Hogwarts? Harry Potter!
brought to you by Quizilla


I fell over laughing when I saw my results. It's too true! *sigh* I need more friends... (and more bookcases, come to think of it...)

Katie's Theme Song

I think most of our loyal readers may be unaware that our little Catherine has a theme song. One of our friends (who also has a sister named Katie) started singing it to her on Easter, & it's been a popular song in our house ever since. And what is it? Why, K-K-K-Katy, that "Sensational Stammering Song Success Sung by the Soldiers and Sailors" of WWI, of course! According to Miriam, this is how it goes:

K-K-Katy, booful Katy,
you're da one-a ba-ba-baby I adore,
whe-hen the moon shines, over the cow shines,
I be waiting from da kitchen door!

Katie will smile any time one of us starts singing this song to her. She loves it.

Problems from the Graduate Student

There are many famous problems in probability. When the ideas and philosophy of probability began to develop in 1700’s, the ideas dealt mostly with how combinations and permuations related to specific problems. One such problem is the birthday problem.

What are these strange terms, and what do they mean? Like other topics in mathematics, most people understand and work with these ideas at some time in their life, but they may not understand the common lingo of mathematicians.

Both terms work with the idea of creating the total number of different lists. First think of the total number of outcomes after rolling 2 die. Let’s say that the first die rolled gives a 1. How many different outcomes exist given that the first die shows a 1? There are 6 different numbers on the second die, so the answer is 6. Now fix the first die to a 2, and repeat the process. Once again, you get 6 more outcomes to add to the first 6 outcomes. The total number of outcomes from rolling 2 die? 6x6 = 36. You simply take the total number of outcomes for each die and then multiply them (thus the name “multiplication rule”). Pretty simple.

Now think of a baseball team. There are 9 hitters on the team (not including the Yankee’s pitchers in the dugout who start fights. That’s a different type of hitter). How many ways can you arrange those hitters in the line up. For the 1^st position, you can choose from 9 players. For the 2^nd position you can choose 8 players, etc., etc. Continue this process until you reach the 9^th batting position, for which you can only choose 1 person. What’s total number of ways that you can arrange 9 hitters in a batting order? Following the example with the die we can use the multiplication rule which gives

9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 362,880.

This multiplication is known as factorial, and the shorthand for it is
9! = 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1.

If we shorten the number of batters to 5, then we follow the same ideas given above, except that we only list the first 5 numbers in sequence. With 9 total hitters and only 5 batters we have 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 = 15,120. This sequence is called a permutation of 9 objects choosing 5. It is written as ₉P₅.

Combinations are best described at a later date in another post, so I’ll just focus on the problem at hand: the “Birthday” Problem.

Here is the proposed question: how many people must be in a room until it is likely (greater than 50%) that two or more people share a birthday? The initial assumption might be 183, as 183/365 is greater than 50%. However, the required number is much lower than that.

To solve this problem it is easier to consider how many people will not share a birthday. To start off, if there is one person in the room then—duh!—that person won’t share a birthday with anybody else. Simple enough. If there are two people in the room, then the second person must have a birthday that is not the same as the 1^st persons birthday; hence, that person’s birthday must be on one of the 364 remaining days. For the 3^rd person, his birthday must be on one the remaining 363 days of the year. The pattern is similar to the baseball lineup mentioned before. When there are 5 people in the room, if nobody shares a birthday, then the number of different arrangements of birthdays is 365 x 364 x 363 x 362 x 361 = a really big number.

But how many total combinations of birthdays exist? To answer that question we look to the die rolling example. The 1^st person’s b-day can be on one of 365 days. The 2^nd persons b-day can be on one of any 365 days. Etc. For 5 people, the total permutations of birthdays is 365 x 365 x365 x 365x 365 = another big number.

A probability is given by taking the total subset of events (nobody shares a birthday) and dividing it by the total number of possible events (total outcomes). Given that there are 5 people in the room, the probability that 5 people do not share a birthday is

6.3 trillion

------------- = .97

6.47 trillion

and the probability that at least two people do share a b-day is 1 - .97 = .03, or 3%. This probability is pretty small, but as there are more people in the room the probability gets larger very quickly. Look at the following chart. Note that the horizontal axis only contains 60 days. As the number of days approaches 60, the probability of at least 2 people sharing a birthday is very close to 1. The initial guess of 183 was way off. If 183 people are in a room, then it is almost certain that at least two people share the same birthday. For our problem of when it will be more likely, the answer is 22, which is where the two dotted lines cross.

It's the sort solution that a person might at first find incredulous, but there is the answer. I hope you enjoyed this little aside into the world of probability. I'll hopefully include more interesting topics from that world at future dates.

Plot for B-day Problem

Hope they're still like this when they're teenagers...

...but I'm not holding my breath!

Miriam actually snuggled up next to Katie, put her arm around her and said,


"Look, Mommy, we're fwiends!"

How can that NOT melt a mother's heart?

Who would you be in 1400?

Pretty cool! Whether I actually AM this type, it's what I aspire to be.

The Prioress You scored 5% Cardinal, 74% Monk, 58% Lady, and 35% Knight!

You are a moral person and are also highly intellectual. You like your solitude but are also kind and helpful to those around you. Guided by a belief in the goodness of mankind you will likely be christened a saint after your life is over.

Link: The Who Would You Be in 1400 AD Test

Proof that boys are superfluous...

...at least when it comes to wedding planning. A recent dialogue with Miriam:

Miriam [wearing a blanket on her head]: "Mommy, I'm getting mawwied!"
Mrs. P: "Who are you going to marry?"
Miriam: "I'm getting mawwied so I can dance."
Mrs. P [chuckling]: "Who are you getting married to? Who's the groom?"
Miriam [glancing at the kitchen broom, looking puzzled]: "The bwoom?"
Mrs. P: "No, the Groom. The boy you're going to marry."
Miriam [after pausing a moment]: "I'm going to dance and dance!"

Yes, Miriam is learning early that weddings really are all about the bride -- the groom is just along for the ride. :)

Confessions of a Potterholic

We'll, we've finally done it... we've joined millions of other young types and dived head-first into the Harry Potter books. I just have this to say.....

THESE STORIES ARE SO FREAKIN' AWESOME!!!!!!!

As you can tell, we're really enjoying them. :) I see Mr. Pickles currently has #3 in his lap, underneath his "Data Analysis and Graphics Using R" textbook. I'm guessing he'll pick it up after he finishes reading about regression trees. He says he had a dream the other night that he was helping Harry Potter with his analytic geometry.

Rowling just really knows how to write a good story. If anything, I've got a beef with the way that the students tend to set themselves against the adults. But I guess it's been a while since I was a teenager so I really can't talk. :b It bothered me that the main characters weren't punished for stealing from Prof. Snape in #2 -- I like it better when wrong actions have consequences, no matter how slight. And in #3, Harry stupidly goes out of his way to circumvent the protections placed for his sake, just so he won't feel left out of the fun. Again, maybe that's a generational gap thing. Otherwise I really admire Rowling's treatment of good and evil. Despite the fact that they deal with sorcery, the stories take place in the same moral universe as our own: the main characters, although flawed, are generally good and virtuous and admirable, and the bad characters are despicable and nasty. You know, after having watched The Incredibles, I can't help but notice that all the villains tend to monologue during the climaxes.... Does anyone else find this humorous?

We're just DEVOURING these books. I had to limit myself to only one per week, to make sure that other things got done, like grocery shopping, making dinner, changing diapers... that kind of thing. :) It's so easy to let yourself get totally immersed. I tried limiting myself to only a certain number of pages a day; then I tried to read only during meals and while Miriam was napping. Then I gave up trying to be a good girl and devoured the rest. I feel partly justified in my obsession -- one night I caught Mr. Pickles with the book open on the counter while he was making dinner. :) They really are absorbing. It took me 2 days each to read the first three books -- the fourth book, which is over 700 pages long, 3 days! Alright, I have to admit I DID stay up until 2 or 3 am... (a couple times) -- but I certainly regretted it the day after! (again, the generational gap thing -- can't sleep in until noon on Saturdays anymore, sigh...)

Spring has sprung, the grass is ris, I wonder where the Claritin is?

In less earth-shaking news, it's officially spring here. What makes it official, you ask?
1. Our neighbors turned their air conditioner on a couple weeks ago when it was 60 outside. (they have allergies)
2. One morning while running errands I drove past no fewer than 3 road construction sites within one mile from my house. (Mr. Pickles says in the midwest they call the seasons almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction)
3. We're ALL sick. Either that or we'll all suffering from allergies. It's hard to tell -- all the symptoms are the same.
But what makes it REALLY official, is:
4. The other day I saw the first bare-chested man of spring! Every year, without fail, as soon as it's above 70, some guy -- usually middle-aged with a hairy beer belly -- will be out doing yard work. It's inevitable, like the rising of the sun, or Congress voting themselves another pay increase.

So now it's official. I'm going to the gardening shop this week to get some seeds for my garden, which is so far only a haven for weeds, forgotten squirrel stashes, a few sad-looking ex-daffodils & all manner of creepy crawlies. That reminds me... I really need to get some gardening gloves.

and so it begins...

from the NY Times today:

GERMAN CARDINAL IS CHOSEN AS POPE
by Ian Fisher
VATICAN CITY, April 19 - Roman Catholic cardinals reached to the church's conservative wing on Tuesday and chose as the 265th pope Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a seasoned and hard-line German theologian who served as John Paul II's defender of the faith.


Well, I'm happy to hear that the Cardinals reached out to me in deciding, all by themselves, to elect a doctrinaire patriarch who isn't sensitive to the needs of womyn desiring empowerment and others who feel marginalized by his predecessor's conservative personal doctrines... (must... not... laugh....) snort!! snigger giggle...
They really don't get it. Who was it who said that the election was rigged? The Holy Spirit knew all along who was going to be the next pope. It was already in the bag. :)
And as Mr. Pickles says, I wouldn't necessarily consider someone who quotes Teilhard de Chardin as a hard-line conservative, either. I read a nice Op-Ed piece after JPII's death that talked about how he couldn't be absolutely pegged in one camp or another -- things he said made both sides squirm. As the op-ed said, a good teacher makes everyone uncomfortable. I think Pope Benedict will continue to do the same. I look forward to reading his encyclicals -- hopefully something on the liturgy! (since he's already written a book about it, which we have... guess I should read it now!)