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Posted at 9:57PM on 19 Jul 07. Permalink.

Definitely a mouse with those ears!

Posted at 10:32PM on 19 Jul 07. Permalink.

now that my life has descended into a nightmare of sleep-deprivation, endless screaming, projectile-defecation, and other practices normally prohibited by the Geneva convention.

Yes, parenthood is quite gruelling.

We have been there. All of it. But we had projectile vomiting too. Right across the kitchen - very impressive.

It passes. It all passes. These days, butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

Hang in there. It will get better. Initially at 6 weeks. Then better again at 3 months. Then again at 9 months, and every three months thereafter.

However, at this stage we can't vouch for what happens after the age of 9 (years, that is).

Posted at 11:02PM on 19 Jul 07. Permalink.

"Well," replied Creon, "I seem to be stuck with Thomas Pynchon and Mason & Dixon." He thought for a moment, and then added: "So it goes."

This made me laugh out loud - something the internet almost never achieves. Brilliant.

Posted at 11:06PM on 19 Jul 07. Permalink.

However, at this stage we can't vouch for what happens after the age of 9 (years, that is).

Perhaps I'm just an old soppy, but I was always bewildered by people who would enquire how old my daughter was, be told, and then reply "x is such a good age, isn't it?"

Every age is a good age. Really. And the older they get, the quicker those ages pass. Unfortunately that's something you can only appreciate after it has happened.

Posted at 11:10PM on 19 Jul 07. Permalink.

A mouse. You're obviously too sleep deprived to think straight. Have another look in 18 years and it ought to be obvious.

Posted at 11:37PM on 19 Jul 07. Permalink.

First child, huh? By the 3rd pregnancy generally the odd piece of Brie can be consumed guilt free. It's all pasteurised in NZ anyway...

And it's a mouse. A rabbit would have teeth. And long ears. And be greyer. And perhaps have longer hind legs.

Posted at 11:43PM on 19 Jul 07. Permalink.

^ Oh , and no disrespect meant with the first comment - I now see you had a very stressful pregnancy. So did we, a month in hospital for the 1st baby with us living on the other side of town, no contact with the baby for the first 10 days, wife & baby lucky to both survive the pregnancy (__HELLP syndrome__)... but it usually gets easier with the next one(s), with or without a nibble of soft cheese... ;-)

Posted at 8:33AM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

Its a mouse

A thing you need to be careful of, but no one tells you, is to consider what toys to supply your child with. Sure, they look cute with the four foot mouse/rabbit/thing and other hangers on.
But down the track when they're a blubbering writhing mess screaming they must have all the toys and you are trying to pack for a trip, or even fit them all in the bed at night, you will be cursing.
Make sure they are small (see above), colourful (easy to spot against furnishings - like hi viz jackets, a lost favourite toy is a traumatic for all) machine washable and dryer safe (accidents will happen)

My wife's first meals post delivery were soft cheeses, pate, sushi, shrimp, smoked fish and just about everything on the warning list for pregnent women.

Posted at 9:13AM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

"So it goes."

It also crossed my mind that the chorus of Agamemnon might have said something similar. Sleepy end of week connections.

Posted at 9:18AM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

that should of course read Antigone, not Agamemnon, duh.

Posted at 10:03AM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

that should of course read Antigone, not Agamemnon, duh.

Lucky you corrected that yourself, Don. Otherwise the rest of us would have been sitting around saying, "Gosh. That Don Christie can't be very well educated. Fancy not knowing your Antigone from your Agamemnon." ;-)

Posted at 10:25AM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

These days, butter wouldn't melt in her mouth.

People say that, and yet, have you tried? Because it does. In my experience, eight year olds enjoy both the testing process, and the horrified look on Grandma's face.

Posted at 10:34AM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

Fancy not knowing your Antigone from your Agamemnon

How gauche!!

Every one knows that Antigone should only be served before luncheon (preferably on thin slices of toast). On the other hand, Agamemnon is crying out to be drizzled on a nice thick steak to bring out the flavour.

I get my Agamemnon ( done in interestingly shaped old bottles) from an ageing hippy on the Coromandel who has built his own Memnon press from old tractor parts.

Posted at 10:47AM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

It an elephant disguised as a mouse.

Posted at 10:48AM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

:-) glad to have been of service. It was Dr. Creon that triggered this whole burst of pomposity.

Posted at 10:49AM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

Yes, but where can you find good Antigone at this time of year in Hamilton, the Farmers' Market doesn't seem to have any.
I tried growing my own, but the family wouldn't eat it once they'd given it a name.

Posted at 11:27AM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

Every age is a good age. Really. And the older they get, the quicker those ages pass. Unfortunately that's something you can only appreciate after it has happened.

The best bit of prenting advice we got - from numerous sources - that turned out to be completely correct was to enjoy the now. People would explain how often they, themselves had been impatient for the "next stage", only to disocver they missed the last one, and felt they hadn't enjoyed themselves enough during it.

I was delighted when my daugter was old enough to greet me with paroxyms of joy when I got home from work - but I also miss the time during the first couple of months of her life when the most magical thing in her little life was Daddy's big, strong, safe chest. Apart from hunger there was no upset, no hurt, no distress that could not be cured by snuggling on down on Daddy. Her increasing complexity comes with many delights - the beginnings of speech, playing with drums and maracas, learning to enjoy the company of others, being excited by books and reading time - but I'm a little sad that complexity also means her needs and wants are no longer so heartwarmingly easy to satisfy.

And after that, obligatory funny.

Posted at 12:02PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

Yes, but where can you find good Antigone at this time of year in Hamilton, the Farmers' Market doesn't seem to have any.

The best organic Antigone is to be found in the warmer climates of the Far North. However the recent floods in Kerikeri seem to have wiped out this year's crop. We might be reduced to importing inferior product grown in the hotter parts of Europe. (Don't touch the stuff from China!)

Posted at 12:40PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

I find you can generally substitute home-grown sun-dried Medeas for Antigone - if you cut them up finely enough. But I'm not a snob about my Hippolytus - I buy that at the supermarket like everyone else, pesticides be damned! Oh, and don't make the mistake I did. Peel your Oedipus first.

Posted at 12:50PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

Otherwise your Oedipus will be terrible, so bad that the very smell will cause passing car drivers' feet to swell and spasm on the accelerator and crash their vehicle, leading to the well known problem of Oedipus wrecks.

Posted at 1:01PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

Otherwise your Oedipus will be terrible, so bad that the very smell will cause passing car drivers' feet to swell and spasm on the accelerator and crash their vehicle, leading to the well known problem of Oedipus wrecks.

Oh look. Now you're just being silly.

Posted at 1:01PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

And quite possibly killing your father, marrying your mother, and becoming surprisingly good at riddles.

Posted at 1:01PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

While we are at it....
Oedipus, call your mother!

Posted at 1:09PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

Deborah wrote:

It passes. It all passes.

I certainly hope it does! All ages may be good ages, but I am not so keen on the age of screaming and projectile-defecation. Although, it has to be said, what a shame we can't compare your child's projectile-vomiting with Bob-the-baby's projectile-defecation. During nappy change last night he managed a magnificent fountain right across the room. The spray of diarrhoea was eventually halted by our wallpaper and chest of drawers, but it was still climbing, and I reckon it could have made at least 3 or 4 metres uninhibited. It was like something from The Exorcist.

rodgerd wrote:

... enjoy the now.

Dude, we'll do our best... (but see above)

Andrew Stevenson:

Thank for the sensible suggestions RE: toys, Andrew -- I shall keep that firmly in mind...

Tony Kennedy wrote:

It an elephant disguised as a mouse.

Have you special psychic powers -- or are you just familiar with the programme's more surreal moments?

RE: the important question of Die Maus vs. Das Kaninchen

Okay, I wasn't suggesting it was an naturalistic representation of a rabbit (__Kaninchen__). More of a stylized rabbit with, admittedly, some mouse-like qualities. All I can say is that it was eating a carrot in the programme that I saw (see my original blog on the topic) and if that isn't enough proof for you than I pity your lack of deductive capacity. Clearly, two + two = Rabbit, in this case.

Final note:

Hey, isn't anyone else stunned by the Ayres & Warr paper? Isn't it remarkable that:

... "Technical progress" -- as defined by the Solow residual -- is almost entirely explained by historical improvements in exergy conversion (to physical work)... at least until recent times.

It seems to me that this has profound implications for our economy, i.e. that we can achieve significant economic growth by investing in technology that has a higher exergy conversion efficiency -- something that there is massive scope for in this country. It also raises the question as to whether economic growth, etc. could be managed by controlling the flow of energy within the economy, e.g. by having something like an 'energy reserve bank'.

Is anyone else even slightly interested in this?

P.S. 'Oedipus wrecks' is pretty close to genius, Stephen.

Posted at 1:09PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

As Alan Rickman put it Die Hard, "Ah, the benefits of a classical education."

Posted at 1:17PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

Don't believe anyone who says to keep your Antigone in the dark. I tried that and the poor thing expired before I'd finished shutting the door.

I tried for years to grow Medeas at home but they don't produce viable offspring.

I like to follow my Agamemnon with sliced Cassandra.

Posted at 1:29PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

On the Solow Residual thing, one thing that maybe an economist could explain to me is why they always look at productivity growth as:

Universal Widgets produced 100 trunnion brackets an hour at a value of $1000 using 10 workers. After installing an Acme 2000 flange twiddler at a cost of $1mln, the same number of werkers were able to produce 120 items an hour

rather than

Universal Widgets shut down due to foreign competition and their 10 workers lost their jobs. InfiniDim Software opened a development centre the same week and hired 10 IT geeks, who each produce $120 of software an hour

Both of these are productivity growth, but all the economics I've seen concentrates only on the first kind. Or is there something I'm missing?

Posted at 1:39PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

It seems to me that this has profound implications for our economy, i.e. that we can achieve significant economic growth by investing in technology that has a higher exergy conversion efficiency -- something that there is massive scope for in this country. It also raises the question as to whether economic growth, etc. could be managed by controlling the flow of energy within the economy, e.g. by having something like an 'energy reserve bank'.

Rod Oram did a column last year where he noted that Claifornia had achieved it's economic growth from the early 1970s, when they began serious state legislation to require cleaner cars, energy conservation, and so on, until now with much the same level of energy consumption. He was contrasting this with New Zealand, where our energy consumption has increased significantly in the same period, with much poorer growth.

Oram is not as widely publicised, sadly, as those members of New Zealand's business community who believe anything that inhibits a pollution rich, poor-worker race to the bottom is a DISASTER FOR THE COUNTRY! AND I"LL PACK MY TOYS AND GO TO CHINA!

Posted at 2:05PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

Oram is not as widely publicised, sadly, as those members of New Zealand's business community who believe anything that inhibits a pollution rich, poor-worker race to the bottom is a DISASTER FOR THE COUNTRY! AND I"LL PACK MY TOYS AND GO TO CHINA!

Heh heh!
Tell 'em not to bother packing. The toys were made in China anyway. There's plenty of room here for landfills, and they can buy brand new toys over their- due to magical invisible hand, they'll be even cheaper than the cost of transport.

Posted at 2:23PM on 20 Jul 07. Permalink.

It passes. It all passes.

I certainly hope it does!

I agree - everything that goes into the sprog passes through. Hence your inpromptu redecorating spree.

Babies have their moments, but you get much more value from other people's babies - that way you still get sleep and you can hand them back at the first sign of a loaded nappy.
However, once they appraoch a year or two old, and display some personality and can react to all those books you'll be reading them, they are much nicer to have around. I can see the attraction in adopting youngsters at about a year old - and I'm not that one that gves birth!

Still, there's all the wonderful landmarks in a small life:
the first real smile when you realise that the other ones really were just wind.
The first night of uninterrupted sleep (under the new definition of uninterrupted = >5hrs).
The first steps and first words are overrated IMHO, but the first time they finish a verse of Hairy Maclairy that you're reading them is a sure warm fuzzy.
When you come home from work and a little voice screams "daddy!" as the owner attaches himself to your leg.