12 weeks from February 10th - May 4th, 2025
Our New Baby Girl
The biggest news around here is that our second baby girl was born! Our family is now equal parts children and parents. And three parts female to one part male.
The birth went nearly as well as we could have hoped for. Both labor and delivery was much faster this time than for our first born.
The Infant Stage
She is significantly less demanding than her older sister was at this early stage. While we eat dinner he is often happy to sit by herself in her electric swing and smile and dribble.
Having equal numbers of children to parents produces a noticeable difference in strategy. If Mom is nursing the baby and I am cleaning up after dinner that leaves a not-yet-two-year-old who may or may not be happy to play by herself for a while. Our child is a social creature, and as should be expected, and often doesn't want to be on her own.
Toddler News
Our 20 month old is getting better at singing. She's getting closer to matching both words and pitches for songs like Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star and the ABC song. The cutest was when she sang along with the song Skidamarink mumbling through the complicated parts but then nailing the punctuated words "I. Love. You!".
When the weather first warmed up I wanted to get my daughter to ride with me on her front mounted child bike seat. But the first attempts did not go well. She seemed terrified to put on the helmet, much less get on the bike. For weeks when we would see people ride bikes around the neighborhood, she would point them our excitedly. But when I asked her if she wanted to ride she would timidly say "no".
But at the start of last week she had a dramatic turn of opinion, and now she asks to go for a ride every night after dinner, which I am happy to oblige.
Around the house
Of the twenty-five Arbor vitae trees that I planted last year, only six survived the winter. I believe the root cause was, well, the roots. I know now that we did not do a good enough job to break up the root ball from those trees. We attempted to break up the roots with a pitchfork and shovel before putting the trees in the ground, but I believe I should have done more to actually cut up the ball with a knife. When I dug up the dead trees I saw almost no expansion of the roots.
So I found a farmer an hour south of here in Onancock, VA who was selling 4-5' Arborvitae Trees for $15 each. I bought and planted replacements for all of the dead trees, and I am hopeful that they are in good shape now. I gave them the fertilizer mix recommended by the farmer and now I need to keep them watered throughout the summer.
Gestating a Clojure Library
In the scattered periods of time where both children were asleep I found myself working on a clojure library that I has been brewing in my head for a while.
I found during my paternity break that it takes some care to select an appropriate nap time activity. You can't really do outside chores if its your responsibility to take over when a baby wakes up. Loud inside chores are also off the table. You want something that is easy to start and stop quickly. I left my laptop open on the kitchen counter and made progress on the tool when I could. More to come later.
Primo Kamado Grill
I've been using a Weber charcoal kettle grill for the last few years. It took me a while to get a feel for getting charcoal to the temperature I want and keeping it hot.
Last year I researched the ceramic kamado grill brands available in the US. Big Green Egg is the incumbent, with Kamado Joe as the upstart. My local Ace Hardware store sells the Big Green Egg and it looks like Kamado Joe is available at Home Depot.
Compared to those two brands, fewer people seem aware of Primo kamado Grills. Primo makes an oval shaped kamado and their marketing emphasizes the ability to do two zone cooking with a cast iron divider, which is something that is not practical to do on egg shaped kamado grills.
I bought the Primo XL at the beginning of the spring and I have been cooking on it weekly. My setup right now is lump charcoal, two zone cooking, mostly doing the reverse searing method. I need to buy the heat deflector accessory if I want to try out multi-hour, low and slow smoking.
Weightlifting
For the first two months after the baby was first born I was finding just enough time to get sets in for Bench, Squat and Deadlift. Accessory lifts were mostly getting skipped.
During this period I read The Conjugate Method by Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell. It didn't feel like coherent work by a book author. I think it may have been edited together from his writings over time. But despite being all over the place, it did inspire me to switch up my lifting schedule to reincorporate the Olympic lifts and training for speed and power instead of just raw strength.
I did set a personal record with a 402lb back squat.
Podcasts I listened to
I've been spending a lot of time listening to The Drive podcast with Peter Attia.
Music I listened to
TV
I watched all of Peep Show while holding the baby.
May 9, 2025