Mama

First words. I never would have guessed. We were taught in school that infants tend to form palatal alveolar phonemes first. Technically, [m] is a bilabial but it is also a nasal. Nasals are very difficult and infants are not expected to form these phonemes first. Therefore, it is generally accepted that, in English at least, infants will first say [dada]. Actually, Foxy has been saying [baba] for weeks, but I refuse to accept it because we have been coaching her to say [mami] (hard) and [dada] only. I tried to explain to Ali that [mama] is easier than [mami] but she wouldn't listen.

Eventually, Foxy got around to saying [ma] repetitively, but not quite convincingly. Finally on the weekend she said it, and as usual I missed it. She said it again but we couldn't get it on camera.

Missed my chance to get free tickets to Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay. That's alright, I'm finding enough amusement at home having insane arguments with Ali about stuff that only she could find a problem with. I never knew that agreeing with your spouse could result in stitches. Things at work are going full bore now, but I think one of the packers is about to get fired. She knows it, but she's lucky because the other packer is about to quit - because of her. She knows that too, and she also knows that we need one of them. I'm trying to schedule a dirt cheap vacation to Japan, but that's one of those arguments I mentioned. Again, who knew trying to do something nice for your spouse could result in torn shirts? That's a grand I'll never get back. Doesn't look like we'll have things ready before the seat sale ends either.

Would You Buy Products from this Face?

I told you I had a monkey baby. We have several photos of Foxy baring her teeth, but I thought this one was very appropriate. It reminds me of the face Donkey Kong Jr. makes when Mario takes Donkey Kong away, in the old pixel version. You know the face - I know you do.

I think I mentioned how a friend offered to do us a favour by taking cheap (not free) photos of Foxy. The catch was that she would be able to use the material to promote her photography services. I didn't like it, but as long as Ali said okay the friend was fine with it.

Well, fuck me. TV ads began airing yesterday, featuring Foxy. Ali assured me that the final cut would have Foxy in it for half a second. Try fifteen seconds. The rest of the spot is random half-second shots which apparently advertise something, although it's not exactly clear, even to Ali. I freaked out at first before I saw the ad because I found out that the ad had Foxy's name on it, creating a slightly higher security risk than this blog presents. I saw the ad today, and it wasn't so bad I guess - apart from the fact that it pretty much fails as an advertisement altogether. Ali offered further reassurance by telling me that the ad will only run until April 30. I can deal.

Humble Much?

It's been an interesting couple of weeks. Things at the office showed promise of a complete turnaround, and then the next day came. We are going through a rough patch and every now and then the boss gives a pep talk to boost everyone's spirit, only to be hit with a dose of reality the next day. The really sad part is that I think my boss actually believes what he's saying - and he's young so I don't really blame him. All in all, things have been improving. We just need a little more direction and communication around the place.

Ali, Foxy and I went to a cherry blossom festival yesterday, but I'll spare you the pictures because you can see what we saw about a million times by simply searching keyword "sakura" on any decent search engine. The weather was a little overcast, so we didn't get the best experience.

I've been trying to firm up my flabby bits in time for summer, and so I've been reducing the amount of alcohol consumption and really trying to eat less, which is difficult in my new family. Randy has been my inspiration. He's married to a chef, and he still manages to tone up somehow. I slipped a bit yesterday when I ate a Lindt Easter bunny all to myself - it was on sale, so I equivocated. I have to say it has been working. Not well enough for Ali though. Apparently my posture is the real problem. I have to agree that I should have better posture, but she could have mentioned it before. I've tried improving it in the past, but it's always so painful on the shoulders at first - so I gave up. Ali made sure I didn't do that this time, and now it doesn't hurt so much. If you listen to her tell the story, it's all because of her coaching that her sister won Miss Tochigi Prefecture 1993 - but I think it has more to do with her father's "pageantry expertise". That's how he puts it. I have to remember to sit up straight more often, like right now for instance. The new posture actually makes me look broad of shoulder and forces me to swagger. I don't know if that last bit's a good thing.

I have a nickname for Foxy. She's getting more independent now, and this morning we decided that she should be called the Screaming Three-Toothed Whitefooted Contraceptive Monkey Bird. Mainly nocturnal, this rare species survives on a diet of paper, hair, Cheerios and carpet bits. Flamboyant by nature, the female consistently behaves as though she's leading a parade. She communicates via a system of grunts and screams when she confronts a rival. She also communicates to others that she is the dominant female of her pack by raising one finger and waving it proudly, as seen above. I haven't figured out the Latin for this type of bird, but to her nearest and dearest she's simply known as the screaming contraceptive.

She's been featured on Youtube, which I'm not too happy about because we didn't sign any waivers or anything like that. And I'm also not too happy about it because the photographer is a friend, and for that reason feels she can act less than professional when dealing with us. For now I just have to let it go, but going forward, I'll have to put my foot down.

I rented Kiki's Delivery Service on Friday only because it was imdb's quote of the day and because it was another Miyazaki film. It didn't make Ali cry or anything, and really it didn't go anywhere with the storyline, but it was good to hear Phil Hartman's voice again. I guess these kinds of movies are good if you want to keep your monkey bird occupied, maybe.