This is a rambling post that has been brewing for a while. But first the most recent.
Review of Star Trek movie: I loved it. Although there was some simple science things they got horribly wrong I was able to overlook them as not too detrimental to the whole story. The acting was better than I expected with the actor playing Kirk being the least believable and Karl Urban as Dr McCoy being spot on perfect.
I loved almost everything about the new Enterprise (only the nacelles looked a little too funky for my tastes) and the interiors had a sense of realism totally lacking in previous incarnations.
But...
But I do have one complaint. There was one big battle where 7 Federation ships go into a trap and get totally smoked. We as the viewers however completely miss that scene because we focus on the Enterprise which arrives later. I really looked forward to the fleet combat and am disappointed that it happened off screen as the rest of the movie lacked a lot of ship to ship combat which is what really gets me going.
At least the person to person combat was shown in its glory unlike the TV show Heros which has lately completely forskaen action for more boring plot dialogue and byzantine twists. In the season finale they had a chance to (finally!) show a big fight between Sylar and the Petrelli boys. Instead we are shown the hallway while the battle rages and come in after the fight is done. WHAT A RIP OFF!
For a show that started with such promise, it has increasingly gone down the "I don't know what we're doing" path and it feels like the writers have not a clue where they want to go. Its quickly fallen from my must-see of a couple years ago to should-I-bother for next year.
However, they have a chance to bring it back on track. A show that did that for me was Lost. Two years ago the show was going along, following the survivors and curious to see if they would get off the island safely. Then things started to get wierd with some new characters, bizarre fallbacks (actually forwards), time travel, and angst, plenty of angst.
I lost interest a lot. It really felt like the writers were going down the garden path and the story was collapsing in on itself and had become unable to move forward. I was almost ready to pull the plug. Fortunately, this season has turned it around, brought the focus back to the island, brought the people back together, and pushed the story into interesting paths again. With the confusing arc hopefully finished we can go into next season with the eye on the ball and a final resolution to the overall arc.
Let's hope Heros can pull out of the nosedive as well.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Sleep Is A Wonderful Thing
The boys have officially been declared "sleep trained". The last two nights when we put them down for bed at around 8 pm Lukas didn't even cry. He stood up to watch us leave the room but was silent and, we assume, soon snoozing peacefully.
The upshot of this new bedtime routine is that mommy and daddy are no longer part of the falling asleep routine, i.e. they don't need our warm body presence to slip into slumber. They now have a new routine which involves merely their crib and a blanket in Lukas' case and stuffed animal Blue in Sean's case. That means when they wake up in the middle of the night, they know how to fall back asleep without us. Unbroken nights of sleep are so underrated in society at large let me tell you.
There are also other advantages to this new routine. Naptime is a lot easier for Kim as she can put the boys down and they stay asleep for an hour or more usually and she is not tied to a chair rocking a baby. She can move around, check email, do housework, or simply slack off. Everyone needs a break.
The only downside is that there is not as much cuddling time with the boys anymore. When they are awake they want to be moving and exploring, not snuggling to us. Sometimes in the morning you might get a chance to cuddle with a just-awake baby but its not long before they are ready to rock and roll and pull all the books off the shelf again. They are getting more independent; they're growing up.
Next step, teaching them how to mow the lawn.
The upshot of this new bedtime routine is that mommy and daddy are no longer part of the falling asleep routine, i.e. they don't need our warm body presence to slip into slumber. They now have a new routine which involves merely their crib and a blanket in Lukas' case and stuffed animal Blue in Sean's case. That means when they wake up in the middle of the night, they know how to fall back asleep without us. Unbroken nights of sleep are so underrated in society at large let me tell you.
There are also other advantages to this new routine. Naptime is a lot easier for Kim as she can put the boys down and they stay asleep for an hour or more usually and she is not tied to a chair rocking a baby. She can move around, check email, do housework, or simply slack off. Everyone needs a break.
The only downside is that there is not as much cuddling time with the boys anymore. When they are awake they want to be moving and exploring, not snuggling to us. Sometimes in the morning you might get a chance to cuddle with a just-awake baby but its not long before they are ready to rock and roll and pull all the books off the shelf again. They are getting more independent; they're growing up.
Next step, teaching them how to mow the lawn.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Happy (Belated) Mother's Day
With Kim on the mend from her "pinched nerves" that was causing her extreme lower back pain last week, the weekend was spent with me doing most of the hefting of the Boys on Friday and on Saturday night. On Sunday Kim started to lift again as she is alone Monday and wanted to make sure she could handle it, and on Saturday day we visited the family in Seely's Bay.
The boys continue to express no interest in learning to walk. For Lukas it seems to be an attention span thing; he can try and stand up but he becomes too excited when we encourage him to walk over to us and goes down to a crawl to get us faster. For Sean it seems more like an apprehension of falling. Regardless, they are getting more steady on their feet all the time and I'm sure it will be a sudden event one day soon.
We started sleep training the boys this weekend. We decided that they were old enough to learn to comfort themselves to sleep as it was really starting to eat up a lot of time in the evenings getting them to bed, but more distressingly they were getting more agitated when waking up in their cribs and finding us not there.
The first night was with Lukas, putting him in his crib while still awake. I was ready for an hour or more of wailing but after 20 minutes silence. We did the same with Sean in the playpen in our room and he had 5 minutes or so of crying before settling down.
The next night we put them both down, together in their own cribs in the same room, while awake. Surprisingly the crying stopped after only ten minutes. On Sunday we did it for the morning and afternoon naps as well as bed time and found that the crying from Lukas ended very quickly all three times, and Sean was a little more upset for a couple minutes. To be fair, at one naptime they stopped crying fast but played in their cribs for about 5 minutes, chattering to themselves.
We are both surprised how well Lukas is taking to this project so far. Our working theory is that the presence of his brother has a comforting affect on him when getting ready to go to sleep; he knows he is not alone thus feels safer and not abandoned. We'll see if the trend continues but after three nights I think we are in a good position.
The boys continue to express no interest in learning to walk. For Lukas it seems to be an attention span thing; he can try and stand up but he becomes too excited when we encourage him to walk over to us and goes down to a crawl to get us faster. For Sean it seems more like an apprehension of falling. Regardless, they are getting more steady on their feet all the time and I'm sure it will be a sudden event one day soon.
We started sleep training the boys this weekend. We decided that they were old enough to learn to comfort themselves to sleep as it was really starting to eat up a lot of time in the evenings getting them to bed, but more distressingly they were getting more agitated when waking up in their cribs and finding us not there.
The first night was with Lukas, putting him in his crib while still awake. I was ready for an hour or more of wailing but after 20 minutes silence. We did the same with Sean in the playpen in our room and he had 5 minutes or so of crying before settling down.
The next night we put them both down, together in their own cribs in the same room, while awake. Surprisingly the crying stopped after only ten minutes. On Sunday we did it for the morning and afternoon naps as well as bed time and found that the crying from Lukas ended very quickly all three times, and Sean was a little more upset for a couple minutes. To be fair, at one naptime they stopped crying fast but played in their cribs for about 5 minutes, chattering to themselves.
We are both surprised how well Lukas is taking to this project so far. Our working theory is that the presence of his brother has a comforting affect on him when getting ready to go to sleep; he knows he is not alone thus feels safer and not abandoned. We'll see if the trend continues but after three nights I think we are in a good position.
Monday, May 04, 2009
Long Time, No Post
I've neglected this blog mainly because it seemed it was becoming a blog all about the Boys and I'm wasn't sure I was happy with that.
After a few weeks of considering I've decided to carry on with my one or two posts a week, usually detailing the trials and tribulations of raising the twins.
So, where were we? Last post was just after Easter, eh? Well, since then the boys had their first birthday including party and cake, they are progressing well in standing and crawling and are inching closer to toddling, and then last week came down with a new head cold that wasn't quite as severe as the one at the end of April but was still the cause of a couple restless nights.
Then, just as the weekend was arriving and the colds seemed to have run their course, Kim's lower back went wonky and she is in pain and has trouble lifting the boys. She is seeing the chiropractor today and my mom is up to help out with the twins, and Kim's mom will be up tomorrow if Kim does not stage a massive recovery. Since she was out of commission on the weekend, we never made that trip to town to get new shoes that we wanted to. I desperately need new shoes.
In other news, I got my second stripe for the purple belt so only 18 more classes until I get my third, then review all the material from white to purple for my brown belt test. I figure sometime in the fall that should happen. Then, a year of training for my Black Belt. Woot.
After a few weeks of considering I've decided to carry on with my one or two posts a week, usually detailing the trials and tribulations of raising the twins.
So, where were we? Last post was just after Easter, eh? Well, since then the boys had their first birthday including party and cake, they are progressing well in standing and crawling and are inching closer to toddling, and then last week came down with a new head cold that wasn't quite as severe as the one at the end of April but was still the cause of a couple restless nights.
Then, just as the weekend was arriving and the colds seemed to have run their course, Kim's lower back went wonky and she is in pain and has trouble lifting the boys. She is seeing the chiropractor today and my mom is up to help out with the twins, and Kim's mom will be up tomorrow if Kim does not stage a massive recovery. Since she was out of commission on the weekend, we never made that trip to town to get new shoes that we wanted to. I desperately need new shoes.
In other news, I got my second stripe for the purple belt so only 18 more classes until I get my third, then review all the material from white to purple for my brown belt test. I figure sometime in the fall that should happen. Then, a year of training for my Black Belt. Woot.
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