Hair

While Schuyler currently looks like a recent Bosley customer, it is encouraging to see her hair finally start to return. We like to think it makes her look older - like maybe she could pass for five and a half months among her friends. Here she is giving us her three push up maximum while she "enjoys" tummy time.

Putting Her Foot In It

Schuyler has acquired many useful life skills including (1) aided sitting (2) toe cleaning and (3) accessorising with neckwear.

Pretty In Pink

In what may turn out to be a prophetic sartorial gesture, Schuyler Young wears seasonal pink overalls courtesy of her Aunt Shaunna (onesie is model's own). In an effort to insulate myself against the upcoming onslaught of pink i'd been warned about, i stupidly started an argument with this baby's mother about gender specific colours and whether or not girls actually do prefer pink. Well, it turns out that while our parents may have that association, chances are that their parents did not. The associations of pink and blue with babies in Western Culture has been long lived, however, up until WW2, pink was associated with boys as a diluted form of red (the fiercest colour) and blue was associated with the Virgin Mary and therefore with girls. The more things change, the more we forget how they were.

my future's so bright...

It's mid-September so we're trying to grasp the last rays of Summer before we have to prepare for the harsh Bermuda winters by wrapping ourselves up in maybe a long sleeved t-shirt and possibly jeans. To all of you in colder climes, come on down - the water's great.

grumpster

In this parental job you can feel a lot of pressure. I don't know of any other job where you get more unsolicited advice (except maybe politics) or where you get more disapproving nods for making private choices about the raising of your child. People i know who are ordinarily sane, productive, reasonable human beings can have passionate and borderline violent discussions on the pros and cons of a pacifier. It wasn't that long ago that these passionate dicussions would be about musicians and somehow that seems a lot more rational. You get a lot of pressure to measure your child against all the averages for key events such as reaching for objects (yup!) or rolling over (nope!). i buy into this more often than i'd like to admit and get excited when she laughs earlier than expected or i get slightly depressed when she doesn't know how to sight read "avocado" yet. Most of the time though, i just look at my daughter's face and i'm filled with clichéd wonder because i cannot believe i'm a Dad.

Four Months and counting...

On August 29 Schuyler had her four month check up. She measured 25 1/2 " long and weighed in at 15 lbs and 13 oz.

Looks Like We Gots Ourselves A Reader

Doctors and learning "experts" may tell you she is just drooling on the books but i know deep inside she's actually ruminating on the tricky subtext of "Five Little Ducklings" - the saddest tale of parental abandonment in the ornithological world.

sit ups

Bermuda's Schuyler Young performs in the Rhythmic Gymnastics ribbon final at the SEA Games in Nakhon Ratchasima this year. She narrowly lost to Malaysia's Lim Wen Chean.

baby jail

It's not easy to see your kid in prison. Every parent hopes their kid will make wise choices but sometimes it doesn't matter what you do as a parent, your children will still make mistakes and end up behind bars, cuffed to their crib toy. It's tough for Schuyler behind these bars. There's no toilet so you have to go in your pants. There's no privacy. The only friend you have is a blue lamb as a cellmate and even she doesn't say much. But there she will have to stay. At least, until she wakes up.

The real baby jail has been tougher. we struggled with what to do when liz's maternity leave ended in mid-August and settled on a day care which is a 5 minute walk from liz's office. it's been hard leaving her with a stranger all day even though her 'teacher' is very kind and seems to really dig the new smiling addition. some days it seems cruel. some days you walk in and the place is like an insane asylum for midgets who only speak in screams and you wonder how you could ever leave her there. some days, the children's music is playing and everyone's content and quiet and the angry midgets seem to have developed a miniature kibbutz based on giving and trust (i swear i smelled insense). Maybe the grass is always greener...

three faces - intrigued, happy, ecstatic

the big fish hook

Mark Twain once said that Bermuda was "like a fish hook... only smaller". The dude was right.

just for laughs

we were really really lucky that Schuyler's fast thinking Mum and her ridiculously over eager Dad joined forces to capture her first laugh on video... this is just the end of Schuyler's sudden mirth. Basically, Ward had docked Goodtimes in a very small spot. Explaining this to Schuyler in a hyperactive and slightly effete manner seemed to do the trick which was a nice ego boost as her Dad had five stand up gigs the following weekend. Strangely, the audience at Just For Laughs didn't find the "small spot" remotely funny... but her Dad won the audience that mattered.



... and if you are interested in seeing and hearing her second paroxysm of laughter, you're in luck (click here).

shark bait

The sharks seemed less interested in our little hunk of defenseless and tasty flesh than we thought they might be. Now, in retrospect, i appreciate that this is probably my Michael Jackson moment (and not in a good way) but we thought it was a good idea to get Schuyler in the water while we were there and it was either here with the sharks or off the swim platform in 30 ft of water (also with sharks). Now some cynics will point out the crystaline (and shallow) stretches of deserted beach in previous photos and say, why not there for a dip in the sea? why in with the sharks? well, call me a push over, but Schuyler has always been fond of Finding Nemo and this was my chance to make her dreams come true and what father would say no to dreams.

"You're gonna need a bigger boat"

It's not often you get to swim with sharks but at Compass Cay there are about ten "tame" nurse sharks who hang out around the dock. Sure they don't really have teeth and would probably only give you a really nasty hickey but they are also responsible for many attacks on humans ("dude, where did you get that hickey?") because humans treat them as harmless.

What is not so harmless is the 8 ft lemon shark that came by the last two nights we were there. It looked pissed and ready to eat something... such as a fleshy soft 15 lb baby. We kept her indoors at night.

final compass cay

Above are some of the mangroves and below, the lazy summer sunsets.

more compass cay

I warned you there would be more Schuyler-less photos. I don't want to make this about us but i did want to capture how simply fantastic this place was. Liz and I had such a great time with Mum and Dad (and, yes, the spawn as well) kicking back, snorkeling, almost running out of oil in the tender, kayaking through mangroves with juvenile lemon sharks - it was just filmic and impeccable.

all aboard

From poking through the hatch to crashing in Kim's cabin, Schuyler safely enjoyed herself.

bay of pigs

This contains no photos of Schuyler... but she is a piglet and we've been dying to see the Bay Of Pigs in person. It was freaky, brief and surreal. Lord of the Flies anyone?