The Zog Blog

On the day Daniel was born, I followed in the footsteps of several friends and started a photojournalism project.

We call it “365″, and the concept is simple: A self-portrait each day for a year. You may use anything you like (including other people) to frame the shot, but you must actually hit the button. I [...]

I was prepared for our sons to have different personalities, different ways of dealing with the world, different preferences and appearances. I wasn’t really prepared for the extent to which differences in our parenting would make the two boys different.

(Daniel is pretty much ready to crawl, by the way. There went my hopes for [...]

Obviously, the format of this blog just isn’t working for me anymore. It made so much sense when we’d just moved to California, were new parents, and were so worried about losing touch with everyone. Now we’re back, we have the added hustle and bustle of another child, and I’m back at work. If I’m [...]

The more things change…

…the more things stay the same.

(Three years ago, and now. Wishing you all the best of the season.)

I need to get used to writing snippets about our life, quick posts that only take a few minutes. Daniel’s infancy is zooming by, and I want to be able to have some documentation to remember it.

Daniel may still look eerily like his brother, but they couldn’t be more different. While Jacob enjoys other people, [...]

Life is wonderful, busy, terrible, joyous beyond belief, unbearably dull, frantic, fantastic, full.

So very full. Hope you’re doing as well as we are!

Uh, sorry about that–there was a peculiar and difficult error with my Wordpress installation. But it’s fixed now, so here are some pictures!

Family portrait, day 4. Also, I present the following as evidence that all babies look alike:

Daniel, around 1 week old.

Jacob, around 1 week old.
Life with two kids is difficult [...]

Squeaking in under the wire, our second August baby.

Born at 7:30pm August 31. Mom and baby healthy and happy. He was 9 pounds 14 ounces, and 22″ long.

Welcome home, little guy. Nice to finally meet you.

Our absence, that is.

This picture is from two weeks ago, now, but the little dictator-in-residence is apparently still quite happy where he is. (All labor-inducing suggestions and distracting funny stories gladly welcomed.) A few days after my last post, we finally diagnosed the rash Jon and I had picked up since the move. (Warning: [...]

We packed up, we moved separately so that I didn’t hit any too-pregnant-to-fly limits, we unpacked, we found a preschool for Jacob, we unpacked, we got Jacob through the many transitions, we unpacked, the baby grew, I swelled, we all slept, we cursed the humidity, we unpacked, we started working, the baby grew, the baby [...]

Jacob enters the room with a tape measure and the mouse to our computer.
“This tape measure is not sticking! Maybe the mouse can help it!”

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Also, an addendum to the last post: I took a picture of my scraps from the last pie crust.

We are likely to disappear from internet-land for the next couple [...]

So the thing about pie crust is this. While a lot is made of whether a crust is flaky, the most important thing to remember is that any crust must also be tender to suit most people’s taste. And to enhance tenderness, you absolutely need to be fast. There are lots of other things you [...]

Apparently the blog decided that if I wasn’t going to update it, it would just stop working.
Posting appears to be the apparent fix for this. As I’m knee-deep in upgrades and work just at the moment, how about a classic Jacob expression?

(He would still like me to put the camera away.)

Well, this seems to be a year for big changes, so why not go with it? In June, we’ll be moving our family back to our house in the Boston area. There are still plenty of details to figure out, but all major decisions have been made.

Certain family members are jumping for joy.

(Thanks so much, everyone, for your kind words about my grandfather. Time, of course, heals all.)
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Business trips (both of us), guests, planning another major move (more on that later), trying to come up with names for the healthy BOY that seems to be crushing my internal organs, the beginnings of potty training, keeping up with [...]