Random Thoughts and Geekery
Baltimore Aquarium
Yesterday we went to the Baltimore Aquarium with my parents. What a fantastic trip! We started off the day at about 7AM, packing everyone into the Ford at 8AM and scooting off as fast as we could towards I-95. The Aquarium has a slot-based approach to tickets, and each slot lasts for about 30 minutes. Our slot was for 9:30, which meant we had just over an hour to get there from Sterling. Given the rush we stopped at Dunkin Donuts - a guilty pleasure - for some flatbread and sugary coffee.
We arrived just in time and went inside, where Layla was super excited to see all the fish in their front-lobby tank. It reminded me of what the Bass Pro Shops in Hampton has in their store, with all of the natural habitat replicated to fit a modern interior. Past this area you come to a wide-open area where they have some sharks and stingrays in a giant ground floor tank. Layla was wide-eyed and mesmorized, repeating all of the words we told her in her best drone voice: "ray," "shark"!
Making our way up the escalators (which were awesome, given the building is rather small horizontally but huge vertically) we saw her favorite thing of the day: a huge green sea turtle we hadn't seen down below. It cruised around the area with only one front fin, which told us it was probably a rescue. They began to feed it lettuce and Layla told us the play by play! She even said "turtle eating leaf," which made our jaws drop. On this second floor we also saw a "Nemo" fish (clownfish), a Nautilus, and an octopus.
Going up a floor we went into the rainforest area, which was super humid for what we were wearing. We didn't see too many animals there, which was a bit disappointing. The one bird we did see had a piercing "fox call" that made us want to leave immediately. We did see an orange monkey and a sloth way up in the treetop, though. We moved on pretty quickly because we were so uncomfortable.
Once you reach the top of the building, you start making your way down through other various tanks and exhibits. I really enjoyed seeing the sand tiger sharks during that part. They'd slowly glide by, showing off their teeth like they were proud of them. Kristin was weirded out by one of the sharks that looked like it was staring her down.
Lunch time came about and we went out to the Hard Rock Cafe. All the memorabilia there is so awesome - Eddie Vedder's guitar case, Elvis' robe and grammy nomination letter, Keith Richards' guitar, and many more things. Even though we had to wait for about 45 minutes for lunch to arrive, the food was great. Plus, they have LCDs everywhere playing music videos, so I was at least entertained. Layla was dead tired by this time, though, and she fell asleep in Pa's lap until the food arrived.
We went home and Nanny's job was to keep Layla awake for the car ride. The technique worked and we were all rewarded with a much-needed nap! It was a good capstone to a day well spent.
Surprised by a Sentence
As time has gone on I think I've grown accustomed to the leaps and bounds by which Layla grows weekly. Every once in a while, though, she'll really drop a stunner that leaves me reeling, bringing me back down to earth with just how much she's progressing. Just last night as I was getting her ready for bed, she looked up at me and matter-of-factly said "I want to see the video with the rhino with the horn." We'd been watching some Youtube videos of rhinos that she'd really enjoyed, and I'd been talking to her about the horns on top of their nose. For most of the night she'd say one or two words about the videos, but nothing like the complete sentence that came out later.
She's just shy of 23 months old today, and I find it totally jaw-dropping that she'd come up with a sentence of that complexity this early. I guess it reaffirms my belief that she knows full-well how to speak in her mind - she's just working on how to get it out! I'll certainly continue to speak to her in full sentences. From the looks of things soon enough she'll be responding in kind!
Second Brew Coming Soon
The second batch of beer is well on its way! This time around I'm brewing an amber called Autumn Amber Ale, which can be found at Midwest Supplies. Unlike my previous one (a hefeweizen), for this batch I will be doing two stage fermentation; I will leave the mix in my plastic bucket for a week, then transfer it to a glass carboy for another week. Hopefully this will give me a clear and consistent brew since a lot of the sediment is excluded during the transfer.
To get the wort below 80 degrees I chilled it by setting it in cold water, all the ice from the icemaker, and several of my running water bottles that I'd frozen overnight. The combination was just enough – the mixture was cool after only 15 minutes of sitting in the sink. This was a huge improvement over last time, where I had to wait for hours after accidentally pouring the hot wort into the cool tap water for cooling.
Even with these improvements from last time I still have some things I can improve upon:
- I could purchase the extra gallons of water in advance. These gallons could be stored in the fridge to cool much more than tap water, further decreasing the amount of time I'd have to wait before pitching the yeast. This would also give me better filtration, as I'm sure the tap water is less “pure” than that in the packaged containers.
- I need to start earlier in the day next time. I stayed up until almost midnight. Instead of waiting for Layla to go to sleep, what I could do instead is have Kristin keep her occupied while I take care of the most dangerous part of the process (until the chance of a boil over is eliminated).
- If I remove any of the ingredients, I can put a small note in the ingredient boxes on where I put things. The yeast in this current kit had to be refrigerated, so naturally I did so when I received the kit in the mail. What I didn't do, however, was to let my future self know where I'd put it. This led to me frantically looking for the yeast with my boiling wort almost ready because I forgot that I put it in the fridge. A simple post-it note in the ingredient box saying “yeast is in the fridge – MM/DD” would have avoided the anxiety.
- I could find a longer thermometer. The short one that I used would fog up because it was so close to the steam coming off of the wort. I also don't like having my hand so close to the hot mixture. If possible I'd like to have a safer alternative.
Making beer isn't particularly difficult. It is time consuming and precise, but all it really boils down to (no pun intended) is following instructions and engineering the process to go smoother each time. As I iterate my process each time I'm getting closer and closer to that goal of “smoothness” while enjoying a delicious reward each time.
Kristin Reads
One thing I love about Kristin is her propensity to bury herself in good novels. Here I've caught her in the act back in 2007. She's still the same today: her nose in a book but nevertheless aware of her mischievous husband with the camera!
Kristin is on to my game as she reads a book 
The Business Parent and the Fun Parent
Over the past month Kristin and I have realized that Layla views us in two very different lights: I'm the "business" parent and Kristin is the "fun" parent. Let me explain. The business parent is the one who gets right into the task at hand. If it is changing time, then that time is for changing and not much else; it isn't a time for playing with toys or making many jokes during the process. The business parent leaves such things for their own time (usually just after the change is done in my prior example) - they are in essence taking care of business!
The fun parent, by contrast, integrates playful activities into these routines. When changing that diaper, for example, the fun parent integrates some toys into the picture or may play a game or two with the things on the table. The key is that a "fun" activity is integrated into the otherwise "not fun" activity with the idea that the overall experience is better for the child.
To be fair, these two roles are not mutually exclusive; I still do my fair share of tickling on the changing table just as much as Kristin gets things done. By and large, though, I'm the parent that just wants the chore-type things to be done with as fast as possible and Kristin is the type to encourage play all throughout. In other words, we're both pretty close to the middle of the spectrum when it comes to that aspect of parenting.
This has some really interesting implications on Layla's behavior. What she seems to be doing is tailoring her reactions to the parent she's with at the time. For example, when Kristin puts her in the car seat (what I'd call a "not fun" activity for her), Layla will stand up and fool around, avoiding at all costs getting strapped in safely. If I do the exact same thing, however, she'll sit and watch calmly as I buckle her in (albeit with a little fussing). I don't know if this is the start of some more serious manipulation in the future (e.g. I go to Mom when I want shoes) or if she's just forming basic associations at this point. Either way she's a clever, wonderful little bean!
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